After upsetting Jose Mourinho and Tottenham 2-1 in the last round, West Ham will be hoping for an encore when they travel to the Etihad to take on all conquering Manchester City this weekend. City are top of the table and have a massive 10 point advantage over rivals Man Utd with nearly 2/3rds of the season done and dusted.
Pep Guardiola’s side have now gone 19 games unbeaten across all competitions since drawing at home against West Bromwich Albion in mid December. Their last four league games haven’t been easy, with Liverpool, Spurs, Everton and Arsenal as their opponents, but they’ve beaten each of them, scoring 11 times in those four and conceding just twice (including one controversial penalty against LFC)
Guardiola’s men come into this game on the back of a 2-0 win over German outfit Borussia Monchengladbach in their midweek Champions League clash. Gladbach didn’t really trouble City- they mustered just one shot on target in the entire game, and a goal in either half from Bernardo Silva and Gabriel Jesus sealed an easy victory for Pep Guardiola’s men.
City haven’t lost to West Ham in the league for nearly six years and that, coupled with their stunning recent form means they are firm favourites at NetBet to rack up another win against the Hammers. At the time of writing, Pep Guardiola’s men are being quoted at 1/4, with David Moyes’ visitors huge underdogs at 11/1.
From a West Ham point of view, beating City would perhaps cement their spot as genuine top four contenders. The last time they had a really good run in the league (15/16) was also the season they last beat City at the Etihad. That campaign saw the Hammers win away against City and draw at home, and somewhat interestingly, their clash against City earlier this season at the London Stadium back in October ended 1-1. Michail Antonio scored a worldie of a bicycle kick on that occasion, with Phil Foden equalising after the interval.
City record against West Ham since the 2015 loss
It’s a massive ask of West Ham though this weekend, and they’ll also have to do it without a key performer in Angelo Ogbonna. Craig Dawson and Issa Diop did a fairly good job against Spurs last weekend, although Moyes was forced to bring on Ben Johnson late in the game and shift to a five man defence to counter the attacking threat of Lilywhites substitute Gareth Bale in the second half. The Hammers weren’t pretty, but they were certainly effectively, as shown by the xG map against their London rivals.
The referee for this game is Michael Oliver- the Hammers have played two under him this season (a 2-1 loss to Arsenal and a 2-1 away win at Leeds), while this is the fourth game City will be playing with him in the middle- a 2-5 loss to Leicester City & 1-0 and 4-1 wins at Sheff Utd and Liverpool respectively being the other three.