West Brom assistant head coach Dave Kemp felt Manchester City had too much quality for the hosts after the Premier League leaders ran out 4-0 winners at The Hawthorns.
Sergio Aguero's first half double prompted a sour end to a week in which Albion boss Tony Pulis signed an extended contract.
West Brom rallied in an attempt to reduce the arrears during the second half but a late brace from Germany international Ilkay Gundogan capped a handsome triumph for Pep Guardiola's team.
City were winless in six matches across all competitions heading into the match but Kemp felt a gulf in class showed and refused to blame his own team's tactical approach.
"It wasn't part of the plan to be 2-0 down, let's get that right," he told a post-match news conference.
"The people you're playing against are top, top drawer. These players, they've not come down from the Job Centre – they played quite a bit of money for these people and they're very, very good.
"It doesn't matter what your plan is – you're right, we didn’t execute that well, I'll agree with that – it isn't quite as easy as your plan working and their plan not working.
"If we're going to beat Manchester City we need to be on top of our game and we probably need them to drop a notch. That wasn't the case today.
"We were poor first half, they're an excellent team, let's be honest – full of quality.
"We were 2-0 down but came out second half and gave it a good go. For 25, 30 minutes we did quite well.
"We needed to score during that period. If we'd scored then it's maybe a different game. Once it gets to 10 minutes to go and they're pushing forward breaking on us, they're good enough to punish you."
Kemp added: "Even with the last goal we are disappointed because we actually had eight players back in the box after we'd been attacking.
"Our commitment was still there if we're looking for pluses but on the day they were too good for us and had too much quality."
