West Ham Utd 0 Man City 2

The Hammers slipped to a disappointing defeat against Manchester City at The Boleyn this afternoon.

A goal in each half for a well-drilled City side condemned United to defeat in front of a capacity crowd in East London.

New City signing Rolando Bianchi opened the scoring on 18 minutes when he converted a low cross from former Hammers target Elano with a goal that bore more than a passing resemblance to Palermo's goal at The Boleyn last year.

And Sven Goran Eriksson's new side wrapped the three points up three minutes from time when substitute Deiberson Geovanni added a second with the United defence at sixes and sevens.

Sadly that had been the pattern for much of the game, with Anton Ferdinand inparticular having one of those days he'll be hoping to forget in a hurry.

Up front the Hammers barely bothered the City goal, which was especially disappointing given that City's keeper for the day was the young and inexperienced Kasper Schmeichel - son of former Man Utd keeper Peter - who had barely tasted first team action prior to today.

Of course, the Hammers weren't helped by injuries - new signings Scott Parker and Julien Faubert were missing, as was defensive stalwart (and newly-named club captain) Lucan Neill.

Meanwhile the two new signings on show - Freddie Ljungberg and Craig Bellamy - were worryingly ineffective, and even the late introduction of the returning Dean Ashton - making his first competitive start since the 2006 FA Cup Final - failed to stir the Hammers into action.

In fact Ashton's introduction proved to have a negative effect as the Hammers - unbalanced having reverted to a three-man defence following the departure of George McCartney - barely managed a shot in the last half hour of the game.

However the game was lost in the opening 20 minutes with a worrying lacklustre United side overrun by City's collection of new foreign arrivals.

Plenty of food for thought tonight for both Alan Curbishley and Eggert Magnusson then, whose search for fresh blood ahead of the August 31 transfer deadline will almost certainly intensify given today's insipid display.

West Ham United: Green, McCartney (Ashton 62), Spector, Upson, Ferdinand, Bowyer (Mullins 45), Noble, Ljungberg, Boa Morte (Etherington 45), Zamora, Bellamy.

Subs not used: Wright, Gabbidon.

Manchester City: Schmeichel, Richards, Corlunka (Onuoha 61), Dunne, Garrido, Hamann, Johnson, Petrov, Elano (Geovanni 79), Ireland, Bianchi (Bojinov 60).

Booked: Garrido (23, unsporting behaviour), Ireland (30, unsporting behaviour), Elano (73, unsporting behaviour), Geovanni (88, unsporting behaviour).

Goals: Bianchi (18), Geovanni (87).

Referee: Peter Walton.

Goals: 34,921.