Premier League: Manchester City 3 West Bromwich Albion 0

Carlos Tevez got the perfect birthday present – a hat-trick and the three points – as Manchester City tore West Bromwich Albion apart 3-0 at Eastlands.

The City skipper turned 27 and celebrated by smashing in a first-half treble to give Roberto Mancini’s men their first win in four games.

It was crucial that the Blues recovered from their mini slump – and this result was never in doubt with Tevez putting the finishing touches to City’s overall dominance.

West Brom’s run of poor form, however, showed little sign of ending and Roberto Di Matteo’s team now stand just two points above the drop zone.

City were almost ahead in the fourth minute when Aleksandr Kolarov picked out Tevez, but the Argentine’s volley came back off the post.

However, Kolarov had a hand in the opener when he was bundled over in the box by Steven Reid as he ran on to James Milner’s clever free-kick. Tevez, despite missing his last two penalties, stepped up to score the resulting spot-kick, sending Boaz Myhill the wrong way.

The second goal followed quickly – and it was a team effort of real quality which cut through the West Brom defence.

Vincent Kompany brought the ball forward and fed Tevez, who played a neat one-two with David Silva before dancing inside Jonas Olsson and firing under Myhill.

Kolarov, pushed into left midfield by boss Mancini, then smacked a 30-yard thunderbolt that Myhill tipped on to the bar before Tevez wrapped up his hat-trick from the spot in the 40th minute after Jerome Thomas had needlessly controlled Kolarov’s cross with his arm.

City took their foot off the gas in the second half and West Brom came close to pulling a goal back soon after the break with Marc-Antoine Fortune firing into the side-netting and Chris Brunt going close from long range.

In the dying minutes, Tevez blasted over from six yards and Edin Dzeko was inches away from scoring his first English Premier League goal.