Fresh from their recent tribulations, a mischievous computer decreed that West Ham should play Manchester City on this opening Premier League day. And City won at a canter.

In recent weeks Sven-Göran Eriksson acquired for City no fewer than eight new foreign players, most on the basis of video clips, since he had seen few of them in the flesh.

Of these, five started at Upton Park yesterday, and the truth is that from the very first, City looked no less coherent and confident than West Ham, only two of whose new acquisitions began the game.

Last time City came here they won a dull game with a late and unexpected goal by DaMarcus Beasley. That game was notable for how West Ham fans virtually chanted Carlos Tevez off the bench and on to the field.

A particularly interesting signing for City is the 24-year-old Italian striker Rolando Bianchi, deployed as a sole striker, who duly gave his team their 18th minute lead.

His has been an extraordinary story. In all his seasons with his local Italian club, Atalanta, he never scored a goal. With Cagliari he scored just four in 39 games.

And when he joined Reggina, never more than a very modest club, in 2005, that season brought him just one goal in nine games. Yet last season in the Campionata, an astonishing transformation saw him score freely and frequently all season, so much so that City were willing to pay more than £8m for him.

His opening goal yesterday came after a powerful and determined run on the right by Stephen Ireland, one of City’s surviving players from last season, had left the West Ham right flank exposed plus Matthew Upson toiling in the rear. When Ireland, under no pressure now, sent in a crisp diagonal ball, Bianchi was the one to pounce and beat Robert Green in the West Ham goal.

For City, Martin Petrov, the experienced Bulgarian left winger, looked poised and infected from the start, quite often leaving his left flank to move onto the right, where, on 25 minutes, he had a shot which caused Green to sprawl full length to reach the ball.

As for West Ham, it was all too inevitable that they should seriously miss the dynamism, commitment and skills of Tevez, not least with relatively little coming from their two recent, expensive acquisitions, Freddie Ljungberg pedestrian on the right, and Craig Bellamy, hardly his usual dynamic self, in the centre of attack.

It was almost half-time before West Ham offered even the ghost of a goal. That was when Luis Boa Morte moved from the left into an inside-right position, moved powerfully on the ball, but could not quite get through the packed defence. The ball ran to Ljungberg, whose shot was capably saved by Kasper Schmeichel, son of Peter, filling in for the injured Swedish international Andreas Isaksson.

Untypically, West Ham’s fans booed their team off the field at half-time. But when Matthew Etherington replaced Boa Morte on the left flank after the break, things began to look up.

Almost at once, Etherington was doing the kind of things that natural wingers should, finding room to send in a succession of dangerous left-wing crosses.

On 50 minutes, one of those balls, an excellent cross, had the City defence in confusion, but Bellamy could not quite connect. Ten minutes later, Bobby Zamora beat two men, and bent in a swift cross into the goal-mouth from the right which Etherington only just failed to make contact.

It was surprising, three minutes later, when West Ham finally brought Dean Ashton, peroxide blonde hair and all, onto the field as central striker but only and bizarrely to push Etherington into a deeper position on the left, with Bellamy deployed on the left-hand side of what became a three-man attack. The repositioning of Etherington was the more surprising and debatable for the fact that Schmeichel junior, in the City goal, a far smaller, slighter figure than his massive father, looked vulnerable to the high cross.

As it was, the next dangerous attack, on 71 minutes, came from Manchester City, and again featured the talented and insidious Petrov. Picking the ball up on the right, he ran almost half the length of the field before letting fly a shot which Green could only turn around his left-hand post.

West Ham did make a couple more late chances. A shrewd ball from Mark Noble put Zamora narrowly clear, but he snatched at the ball. A minute later, when Etherington broke yet again, his accurate cross was volleyed high over the top by Ashton.

So it was that on 87 minutes, City scored a clinching and spectacular goal. The hero was their substitute right back, Nedum Onuoha. Setting off on a remarkable 60-yard run, he swept by the West Ham defence and, ultimately finding his way blocked, simply turned and pushed the ball back to Geovanni, who beat Green in his own time.

Almost at the very end Geovanni might have had a second when West Ham’s defence was pulled apart on the right. The Bulgarian Valeri Bojinov found the Brazilian in space, but this time, Green resourcefully turned the shot around his right hand post.

All in all, a humiliating afternoon for West Ham and high hopes for City.

Player Ratings: West Ham: Green 7, Spector 6, Ferdinand 6, Upson 5, McCartney 6 (Ashton 63min), Ljungberg 5, Noble 6, Bowyer 5 (Mullins ht, 6), Boa Morte 6 (Etherington ht, 8), Zamora 6, Bellamy 6.

Man City: Schmeichel 6, Corluka 6 (Onuoha 62min), Dunne 7, Richards 8, Garrido 6, Ireland 7, Hamann 7, Johnson 7, Elano 6, Petrov 8, Bianchi 7 (Bojinov 61min)