Dark clouds have gathered over Eastlands of late, but, as an uplifting afternoon came to an end yesterday, Thaksin Shinawatra began to relax in the directors’ box and Mark Hughes found himself serenaded by the Manchester City supporters who once despised him. Winning football matches can often have the effect of a panacea and, having perhaps wondered what he had let himself in for after a testing start to life in the blue half of Manchester, this was just the kind of afternoon that Hughes needed.

Praise of City’s performance should come with the caveat that West Ham United were awful even before they lost Mark Noble to a red card in the 37th minute, for a second bookable offence, but this was the kind of display that Hughes had been looking for after a 4-2 defeat away to Aston Villa in his first Barclays Premier League match in charge. It took until the 65th minute for them to break West Ham’s resistance, but once they did, thanks to Daniel Sturridge, it became a celebratory afternoon, with Elano scoring two late goals to give the scoreline a more appropriate look.

Thaksin’s problems remain and with £800 million of his assets frozen in Bangkok while he refuses to face corruption charges dating back to his time as Prime Minister of Thailand, he might even have been the one person in the City of Manchester Stadium yesterday who could assure Alan Curbishley, the West Ham manager, that things could be worse. But help may be at hand for Thaksin, with an Arab consortium expressing interest in buying a significant minority stake in the club to ease the cash-flow problem and, if a deal can be finalised in time, to assist Hughes with his search for reinforcements before the transfer window closes.

Clarification of the financial position would come as a relief for City, but they remain a club, much like West Ham, built upon foundations of home-grown talent. The foremost of City’s youngsters, Micah Richards, spent the evening in Manchester Royal Infirmary, having left the field on a stretcher after a clash of heads with Tal Ben-Haim early in the second half, but another two, Michael Johnson and Stephen Ireland, enjoyed productive afternoons, while a fourth, Sturridge, advanced his reputation with some eye-catching footwork and a well-taken goal in front of Fabio Capello, the England manager, lashing the ball past Robert Green after a weak clearance from Matthew Upson.

“Daniel is a young player of great talent,” Hughes said. “But strikers will always be judged on goals. I congratulated him at half-time on his performance in the first half, but I said to him that he needed to try to make more of an impact. I thought he was a handful all afternoon. I’m delighted. It was a big win for us and a good all-round performance.”

The victory was welcome in the wider context, given the continuing unease among City’s supporters about the club’s financial position and the situation regarding Thaksin, who defied earlier security advice to appear at the stadium. “It’s always nice to win in front of the owner of the club,” Hughes said. “It does help and I’m sure he enjoyed it. I think winning just helps settle everyone down. I’ve been trying to accentuate the positives for a while, but not many people have been paying attention. They’re more concerned with negative accounts of what is happening.”

On the pitch yesterday everything was positive, not least the performance of Vincent Kompany, the £6 million signing from SV Hamburg, who had an assured debut in midfield before switching to central defence after the injury to Richards. Kompany said: “I just loved it. I signed two days ago, trained once and I didn’t know most of their names, but I loved it.”

It was an interesting observation because it was the West Ham team who played like strangers. Noble’s sending-off did them no favours, as he first handled the ball in front of Howard Webb and then hacked Johnson, but even before that they had looked alarmingly carefree. “I’ve asked the players for a verbal reaction and not one of them can say they’ve performed,” Alan Curbishley, the manager, said. “Apart from the first ten minutes, we weren’t in the game.”

They were not too hot for those first ten minutes, either, with Callum Davenport forced to head off the line from Ireland and Ben-Haim. Soon afterwards Martin Petrov hit the post with a free kick, while Sturridge flashed a couple of shots wide. Finally the breakthrough came from Sturridge, with a little help from Upson, before Elano made the points safe with two goals in six minutes, both of them coming after Ireland got behind the visiting team’s defence and pulled the ball back to the Brazilian.

By the end, West Ham’s players were praying to be put out of their misery and even members of Curbishley’s coaching staff looked aghast when it transpired there would be ten minutes of stoppage time, mostly because of the injury to Richards.

The longest face belonged to Freddie Sears, the 18-year-old forward, who had entered the fray as a substitute for the injured Carlton Cole, only to make way for Hayden Mullins in a half-time tactical reshuffle. But when your team play like this, sometimes you are better off out of it.

Man City ratings

4-4-1-1

J Hart 5 V Corluka 6 M Richards 7 T Ben-Haim 7 M Ball 6 S Ireland 7 V Kompany 7 M Johnson 7 M Petrov 7 Elano 8 D Sturridge 8

Substitutes: D Hamann 6 (for Richards, 55min), K Etuhu (for Petrov, 77), C Evans (for Elano, 77). Not used: K Schmeichel, J Garrido, G Fernandes, F Caicedo. Next: Sunderland (a)

West Ham ratings

4-4-2

R Green 7 V Behrami 5 C Davenport 7 M Upson 5 L Neill 4 J Faubert 3 M Noble 4 S Parker 6 M Etherington 4 D Ashton 5 C Cole 5

Substitutes: F Sears 3 (for Cole, 31min), H Mullins 5 (for Sears, 46), L Boa Morte (for Etherington, 74). Not used: J Lastuvka, J Spence, K Reid, L Bowyer. Next: Blackburn (h).

Referee: H Webb.

Attendance: 36,635.