West Ham United produced a herculean defensive effort to end Manchester City's 100% start to the Premier League season by beating them 2-1 at Eastlands tonight.

First-half goals from Victor Moses and Diafra Sakho gave the Hammers - who had already beaten Arsenal and Liverpool away this season - a shock 2-0 lead.

Kevin De Bruyne threw the hosts a lifeline by reducing the arrears before the break, but it proved a false dawn as United held strong throughout a one-sided second half for a hat-trick of unlikely away wins.

Here, Sports Mole analyses how City's immaculate start came to a grinding halt.

Match statistics

MANCHESTER CITY
Shots: 27
On target: 8
Possession: 72%
Corners: 16
Fouls: 10

WEST HAM
Shots: 6
On target: 3
Possession: 28%
Corners: 3
Fouls: 7

Was the result fair?

As illustrated above, Manchester City had the shots, the corners and the possession - everything except the goals and the points. Those belonged to West Ham and it would be grossly unfair to take it away from them by virtue of a quite outstanding defensive display. Their back four, in particular, will sleep all the way home on the long 200-mile journey back to London following a tireless collective performance. They earned it.

Manchester City's performance

With David Silva, De Bruyne, Raheem Sterling and Sergio Aguero all included in Manchester City's initial first XI, the hosts looked poised to field one of the most formidable - and indeed expensive - offences that the Premier League has ever seen - on paper, at least. However, Silva picked up an injury in the warm-up, before being replaced by Jesus Navas, but it was the absence of captain Vincent Kompany which looked most significant early on.

Without the Belgian's presence and leadership, the Citizens' defence regularly looked vulnerable, and Eliaquim Mangala was far too lackadaisical in his efforts to close down Moses for the opener. It was the first Premier League goal that they conceded all season, but few inside the Etihad would have been surprised to see them concede again - and it came when Sakho scuffed home from close range following a corner. Again, the absence of Kompany was glaring.

At the other end, Aguero toiled and, despite a combined price-tag in the region of £103m, Sterling and De Bruyne offered the Argentine little service. De Bruyne, who represented £54m of that figure, did throw them a lifeline just before the break. His first touch to control Aguero's bouncing ball was superb, and his second was even better as he drilled past Adrian from the edge of the box in timely fashion. Game on.

To describe the second half as one-sided would be an understatement. Manuel Pellegrini's side huffed and puffed for the entire 45 minutes, but blowing down the sturdy visiting defence was proving hard. Very hard. Yaya Toure tried on several occasions to grab the match by the scruff of the neck, as he often does, but he drilled wide each time. Their best chance of an equaliser came when Nicolas Otamendi forced Adrian into a stunning finger-tip save with a header from point-blank range late on, but United survived.

While Kompany was certainly missed in the first half, Silva's absence looked more and more significant in the second period. Despite a star-studded and expensive attack, the diminutive Spaniard is the one that makes them tick. Still, City had more than enough talent at their disposal to win the game but the visitors simply wanted it more. As a result, Chelsea, who beat Arsenal 2-0 this afternoon, are now eight points behind the table-toppers and this weekend may prove a crucial one come May.

West Ham's performance

"We are confident. Some people say it's a bonus game for West Ham - it's not a bonus game. I would be very disappointed if we don't play good or don't get anything from that game."

If Slaven Bilic's pre-match sentiments looked like mere bravado before kickoff, then the way in which West Ham United started the clash certainly vindicated their manager's confidence. Hunting a hat-trick of high-profile scalps, having beaten Arsenal and Liverpool in their own back yards already, the visitors made inroads toward completing that treble when Moses drilled a low effort past Joe Hart from outside the box after just six minutes. Suddenly, Bilic's words demanded to be taken seriously.

United reflected the Croat's brazen approach as the Hammers had the audacity to double their lead on the half-hour mark, with Sakho bundling the ball home after the outstanding Winston Reid climbed highest to win a header from the corner. It was all hands on deck from that point on, but even the hosts' goal came as something of a surprise given that clear-cut chances were at a premium due to their heroic defending.

From there, Bilic's side were made to absorb an astounding amount of pressure in the second half but they looked equal to the task, with Reid, in particular, finding himself sweeping up virtually every time that a cross was delivered into their box. Goalkeeper Adrian, returning from a three-match ban, did his part too as he denied Aguero on a number of occasions, before expertly tipping Otamendi's thumping header over the bar late on to preserve the win.

If there was still lingering doubt that their scalps at the Emirates and Anfield were anything more than flukes, then Bilic and co certainly ripped down such theories with that victory.

Sports Mole's man of the match

Winston Reid: Honourable mention to the superb Carl Jenkinson and James Tomkins, but Reid was a level above his defensive teammates tonight. He was simply in the right place at the right time far too often for it to be a coincidence and, simply put, without him Manchester City would have won.

Biggest gaffe

Praised for his resurgent performances after a baptism of fire in his first season, Mangala, a £30m signing from Porto last summer, showed signs of regression today. He was arguably at fault for Moses's opener when he inexplicably failed to close down the Chelsea loanee quick enough, and he was made to pay. To add insult to injury, Pellegrini hauled him off at half time.

Referee performance

Robert Madley enjoyed a relatively quiet game. He had one or two contentious decisions to make in regards to penalties, but the official looked to have got the calls right on each occasion and neither manager can complain over his performance.

What next?

Manchester City: Pellegrini and co are back in action on Tuesday when they visit Sunderland in a third-round League Cup affair.

West Ham: Also returning on Tuesday, the Irons travel away to Leicester City in the Capital One Cup for another all-Premier League affair.