Manchester City 6-0 West Ham United
Capital One Cup semi-final first leg
West Ham United were dealt a crushing 6-0 defeat in the first leg of their Capital One Cup semi-final at Manchester City on Wednesday night.
The Citizens have been an unstoppable force at their Etihad Stadium home this season, and so they proved to be again as they swept the Hammers aside.
An Alvaro Negredo hat-trick did most of the early damage, with goals from Yaya Toure and an Edin Dzeko double adding further pain.
It was a more familiar starting line-up for the Hammers following Sunday's FA Cup defeat at Nottingham Forest, but a moment of indecision from Joey O'Brien almost let Pablo Zabaleta in with three minutes played, but Adrian pounced after the ball ricocheted around the Hammers' box.
Manchester City didn't have to wait long to take their first steps towards a first leg victory though, establishing a twelfth minute lead in the simplest form possible as Toure clipped a ball from deep in between O'Brien and George McCartney for Negredo to watch over his shoulder and send an excellent volley beyond Adrian.
The Hammers forced four early corners, but were unable to trouble Costel Pantilimon in the home goal, and before long Sam Allardyce's men were staring at a monumental task.
Adrian did well to keep the score at 1-0 on 23 minutes when he dived down to his left to push Samir Nasri's curling effort behind, but three minutes later he was powerless to prevent Negredo adding a second.
Dzeko was the man who laid on the opportunity for his strike partner, collecting Negredo's pass before playing a slide-rule ball back to him, and the Spaniard avoided McCartney's attempts to get back by squeezing the ball into the top corner.
Dzeko and Negredo then lashed shots over the top as City monopolised possession and when City scored the third the Hammers would once again have been disappointed at the simplicity of it.
Toure picked up possession on halfway and kept on running as the Hammers retreated, allowing him to pick his spot and stroke past the helpless Adrian.
Mo Diame forced a save from Pantilimon in first half stoppage time with a shot from range, but the opening half had been a chastening experience for the visitors.
It didn't get any better at the start of the second period as, just four minutes after the restart, Negredo completed his hat-trick.
City worked the ball down the Hammers' right, allowing David Silva to pass across to Negredo, who swept home first time to make it 4-0.
Still the punishment kept on coming, with Dzeko getting in on the act himself on the hour.
This time Gael Clichy was the man who found space down the left to send a low cross to the near post, where Dzeko was waiting to crash home.
Negredo went close to a fourth on 69 minutes, when the hosts broke with menace again, with the frontman's shot deflecting off Roger Johnson and behind for a corner.
Adrian showed sharp reflexes to get down to his right and deny City a sixth on 82 after Dzeko got a fierce shot away, but there was still time for the home side to add another goal in the final minute.
Dzeko was the scorer, smashing into the top left hand corner from 15 yards after he was teed up by Aleksandar Kolarov.
Manchester City: Pantilimon; Zabaleta, Kompany, Lescott, Clichy; Nasri, Toure (Demichelis 66), Garcia, Silva (Lopes 73); Negredo (Kolarov 79), Dzeko
Subs: Hart, Milner, Fernandinho, Nastasic
Goals: Negredo 12, 26, 49, Toure 40, Dzeko 60, 89
West Ham United: Adrian; Demel, Johnson, McCartney, O'Brien (Rat 75); Diame, Noble (Diarra 57), Taylor; Downing, Maiga (C.Cole 46), J.Cole
Subs: Jaaskelainen, Jarvis, Collison, Morrison
Referee: Jonathan Moss
Attendance: 38,000