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Carlos Tevez scored twice against his former club as Manchester City moved into fifth spot in the Premier League with a convincing 3-1 win over West Ham United at Eastlands.

Former Hammers favourite Tevez did the damage for City with a strike in each half to add to Martin Petrov's first half free-kick.

Carlton Cole reduced West Ham's arrears after 24 minutes and should have contributed to another, which was disallowed, but the hosts were good value for the three points in an entertaining contest.

City opened the scoring after just five minutes with the visitors still mentally in the dressing room: it was a long ball from Shay Given that was the origin of the move.

The City keeper played the ball out to the returning Petrov, whose well-judged delivery made the close-range finish for Tevez a simple tap-in.

The Argentina striker then found favour with his former fans from West Ham by appearing to apologise for scoring against them.

The Hammers faithful should have had good reason to witness the muted celebration on at least two or three other occasions in the first half, however Tevez was initially unable to add to his tally despite several opportunities.

The first of these came with just nine minutes on the clock when a shot flew narrowly wide following a neat turn.

Perhaps a better chance came Tevez's way six minutes later when a left-wing cross took a deflection off Shaun Wright-Phillips and fell kindly for Tevez, but he blazed his finish over the bar.

West Ham finally found their game somewhat belatedly and after 24 minutes equalised when City failed to clear a free-kick from Alessandro Diamanti and Cole turned Radoslav Kovac's shot past Given.

The visitors were unable to keep the scores level for long however and Petrov stepped up to fire City back into the lead directly from a free-kick just after the half-hour mark.

City had several other half-chances to increase their lead, but found Robert Green in stubborn form in the West Ham goal and indeed it was the visitors that came close to equalising for a second time.

Cole showed good pace and power to harry Joleon Lescott off the ball before squaring for Scott Parker to slot home, but somewhat controversially the referee penalised Cole for a foul on Lescott and the goal was disallowed.

West Ham came out for the second half showing their intent to get back into the match, but they were stunned by Tevez's second strike of the match just after the hour mark.

It came from a Craig Bellamy set-piece which was played to the far post where Tevez was one of three unmarked City forwards - and he directed his header into the far corner past Green.

As the visitors chased the game, City exploited the gaps in the Hammers back-line and could have added at least two more goals, but the standard of their finishing did not quite match their approach play.

Green denied Gareth Barry with a fine save towards the end, while Cole could have pulled one back for West Ham had his team-mate Manuel da Costa not impeded him and Roque Santa Cruz - on debut for City as a sub - also missed when well-placed.

City were worthy winners as they closed in on the Champions League places.

Sean Calvert / Eurosport