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Manuel Pellegrini says tactical fouls helped Manchester City beat West Ham 5-0 on Saturday.

The Blues ran riot after a tight first half to rack up another big win at the London Stadium; they have only played five games here in all competitions but account for 22 of the 98 goals the Hammers have conceded at the ground.

Despite another beating, Pellegrini believed his players had done well but simply been unable to cope with their attacks being broken down by City's midfield.

"As a manager it is difficult to say you are not happy in the way we worked, especially with how we played in the first 45 minutes," he said.

"There was not a lot of difference between the two teams.

"Last season we lost 4-0 here to Man City and we knew they could score more. This time, in the first 45 minutes we played well, we didn't ever feel on the bench that City could score. We had good possession, maybe we needed a couple of more players to get in their box but it was a tight game.

"We were very unlucky with the first goal, the rebound of Issa Diop that put them ahead and then Man City are more dangerous. We conceded the second goal too easily.

"Every time that we tried to arrive to their box, they committed 13 fouls. We had just five. We were a little bit innocent. After that we had a couple of chances to make it 2-1, finally with spaces in the last minutes the scored their goals."

When pushed on whether his team needed to be smarter in regard to tactical fouls, the former City manager responded: "We must be more intelligent though to know when to make them, not use it as a system.

"If you review the game today, we didn't create too many chances because many of our attacking chances were stopped by a foul. They had 13 fouls, we had five fouls.

"But I repeat, I don't think that is just the reason we lost 5-0."