WilfriedBony scored his first goal for Manchester City, for a much-needed 3-0home victory over West Brom, as the Citizens were left annoyed after theirChampions League exit against Barcelona, when they felt desperately short ofform.

Thematch started controversially; in the 89th second of the game theBaggies’ Gareth McAuley was sent-off for a professional foul.  There is no doubt the foul was real enough - but it was not McAuley who committed the offence - Craig Dawson had made the initialfoul on Bony, who got up, before running into McAuley inside the area.

Thereferee Neil Swarbrick was the culprit of a case of mistaken identity, as heshould have dismissed Dawson, but instead sent-off the wrong man, despite protestsfrom his team-mates.

Thehome side had to work hard to break down the 10 men of West Brom. In the 27th minute Bony eventually succeededand scored his first goal for Manchester City since his January transfer fromSwansea. From then on, the Citizens were in command, mustering a staggering 26efforts on target in the first - half. Fiveminute before the interval Fernando found a gap in the visitors’ defence and proddedhome City’s 1000th goal in Premier League history.

Theirdominance was absolute in the second-half and it was only the brilliance of theBaggies goalkeeper Boaz Myhill that kept the scores down.

The visitors did haveone chance of note in the second-half, as Saido Berahino hit the post, afterheading from close range, before the former City defender Joleon Lescott noddedover.

Nevertheless,it was City that had the last word in the 77th minute, as DavidSilva stuck his foot in to divert Stevan Jovetic’s shot in the right place;Baggies keeper had no chance, with the ball ending in the bottom left-handcorner.

The Citizens finished the match with 44 effortson goal, only two less than in their record attempts on goal tally against QPRin 2012. They regained their form and have now cutChelsea’s led at the top of the table to three points, but they have played twogames more than the current leaders.