West Ham vs Man City Prediction, Betting Tips & Preview

Preview

Haydn Cunningham Jan 20, 2016 @ 10:54 pm

Manuel Pellegrini has had constant doubters all season and it has been highlighted further now that Pep Guardiola has announced his availability at the end of the season and publically declared that he plans on moving to the Premier League. Pellegrini is wise and experienced enough to not let any of the media hype get to him or his squad but they face a tough trip to Upton Park. Their away form has been the catalyst this season as they’ve picked up just 15 points from a possible 30 on their travels in comparison to their home form where they’ve obtained 28 points from 12 games. City’s latest demolishing of Crystal Palace also took them to the top of the table on goals scored with Sergio Aguero back amongst the goals after an injury hit season for the Argentine forward. Yaya Toure was brought on just before the hour and the Ivorian has been strongly linked with a move away from the Etihad Stadium at the end of the season with his agent very open about the possibility of Toure plying his trade elsewhere.

Slaven Bilic watched his disappointingly go 2-1 down at St.James Park as they fell behind early in the game 2-0 and despite substitute Nikita Jelavic making an instant impact with a goal, they couldn’t grab an equaliser that Bilic admitted after the game they didn’t deserve. It ended a four match winning run for West Ham who had managed victories over Southampton, Liverpool, Wolves and Bournemouth but their run was halted and took them down a place in the table. A Europa League place by right is the aim at the club and despite being knocked out in the qualifying stages at the start of the season, the competition wasn’t taken particularly seriously by Bilic after earning it through the ‘Fair Play League’ but should they achieve a place through performances then you can expect West Ham to put up a much sterner fight next season.

Man City were surprisingly beaten in the reverse fixture this season as West Ham became known as the giant killers having cast aside other big sides in the league on their travels. Man City had 72% possession that day and 21 more shots on goal but thankfully for Bilic West Ham scored two of the three shots on target they had. West Ham also boast winning the last meeting at Upton Park by the same score line and they’ll be confident of doing themselves a favour but also Arsenal and Leicester too in the title race.

Both sides have their respective injuries but the major miss for Manchester City continues to be the loss of their captain, Vincent Kompany. Despite keeping a rare clean sheet in his absence, Pellegrini will be desperate to get his star defender back playing sooner rather than later and especially with the 2^nd round of the Champions League to commence in February. Raheem Sterling was on the bench but he can expect to regain his place in the starting XI. 

West Ham

Stats: W-9 L-5 D-8

Recent Form – WWWWL

Manchester City

Stats: W-13 L-5 D-4

Recent Form - WLWDW

Head-to-head record:

Possible Line-ups

West Ham (4-2-3-1) – Adrian, Jenkinson, Collins, Ogbonna, Cresswell, Noble, Kouyate, Obiang, Payet, Valencia, Moses

Manchester City (4-2-3-1) – Hart, Zabaleta, Otamendi, Demichelis, Kolarov, De Bruyne, Fernando, Sterling, Yaya Toure, Silva, Aguero,

Injury List/Suspended Players

Manchester United – Kompany (inj), Mangala (inj), Fernandinho (inj), Bony (inj)

West Ham – Carroll (inj), O’Brien (inj)

League Positions