City hands West Ham worst home FA Cup defeat in club history

London - Manchester City put a smile back on Pep Guardiola's face as it swaggered into the FA Cup fourth round with a 5-0 demolition of West Ham on Friday.

Guardiola showed signs of feeling the strain of City's inconsistent season when he snapped at reporters during a series of tetchy interviews following Monday's win against Burnley.

The Spaniard was also forced to backtrack this week after appearing to suggest he wouldn't be in management much longer and seeming to admit City wasn't as big a club as rival Manchester United.

But the City manager's image issues looked a lot less problematic after his team destroyed West Ham with a three-goal blitz in the space of 10 minutes at the London Stadium.

Yaya Toure's penalty opened the floodgates before Havard Nordtveit's own goal and a David Silva strike effectively finished the third-round tie before halftime.

City, who last won the FA Cup in 2011, added two more after the interval through Sergio Aguero and John Stones to ensure Guardiola enjoyed a memorable first taste of the famous old competition.

At times this season, City has had an alarming habit of switching off at the back and Michail Antonio nearly took advantage of another lapse in concentration when he raced clear, only to see Willy Caballero palm his shot to Sofiane Feghouli, who somehow fired wide of the open goal.

That proved West Ham's last chance of making City sweat as Guardiola's side stepped on the gas to kill off the tie.

In the 42nd minute, City doubled its lead when Toure was allowed time and space for a cross that was turned into his own net by Nordtveit under pressure from Sterling.

Just 60 seconds later, the visitor punished more slack West Ham defending to deliver the knockout blow as Silva was left all alone to control Raheem Sterling's cross and take a clever touch to deceive Adrian before slotting into the empty net.

City wasn't finished yet and Aguero was on the scoresheet five minutes after halftime when the Argentina star turned in Toure's shot to take him to third on his club's all-time scoring list and send West Ham fans streaming to the exits in droves.

With City in complete control there was an air of an exhibition match about the closing stages, but there was still time for Stones to score his first goal for the club with an 84th-minute header from Nolito's corner.