West Ham vs Manchester City – Preview
Putting aside the fact that Manchester City looked very poor indeed against Real Madrid on Wednesday night, one has to assume West Ham will be facing a highly motivated team. Pep Guardiola’s boys have slipped well behind Arsenal in the Premier League title race and a loss at the London Stadium would likely end any realistic chances of them catching the Gooners.
Claret & Hugh were told by a West Ham insider that Malick Diouf will return for this one, but I can’t help but suspect Nuno is playing possum regarding Crysencio Summerville’s injury… perhaps I’m just being too hopeful.
The return to fitness of Pablo is excellent news for the squad but makes it harder for me to predict the team at the end of this preview. It’s great to have him back though and his performance against Brentford on Monday was arguably his best yet.
If West Ham fans don’t have a Scooby Doo what the Hammers team will look like then neither will Pep I suspect. That said, I doubt he’s too bothered because if City get it right, they can blow anyone away. But West Ham’s players have their tails up at the moment and I’m not sure we’ll roll over and have our tummies tickled as in previous years.
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Momentum building for the Hammers
West Ham United will be looking to build on our positive momentum and were in pretty decent form having only lost 2 out our 11 previous games, clearly we’re making a good fist of this survival malarkey.
The Hammers impressively saw off Brentford via a penalty shootout on Monday night to reach the Emirates FA Cup quarter-finals for the first time in a decade. That victory extended an encouraging run to seven wins in eleven outings across all competitions.
Nuno Espírito Santo’s side go into the weekend level on 28 points with 17th-place Nottingham Forest, knowing that a positive result could lift us out of the relegation zone depending on results elsewhere.
Confidence has certainly improved around the squad in recent weeks and performances have looked far more organised. Against a side like City, that structure and belief will be absolutely crucial.
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola at the Etihad Stadium
Pep Guardiola will be reeling after the humiliation at the hands of Real Madrid
Team news and selection headaches
Pablo Felipe made a welcome return during Monday’s FA Cup win over Brentford after missing five games and will be pushing for more minutes.
Mads Hermansen, El Hadji Malick Diouf and Jean-Clair Todibo are all expected to return after sitting out the cup tie, while Summerville’s fitness remains the big question mark heading into the weekend. Nuno has indicted the winger won’t make it but also said “a Decision will be made day by day”.
If the Dutch winger is available it could significantly change West Ham’s attacking shape, but if not we may see Nuno stick with a more direct approach through the middle.
For Manchester City, Joško Gvardiol and Mateo Kovačić are both expected to miss the game through injury.
Gonzo’s predicted West Ham team
Nuno is keeping his cards close to his chest for this one but I suspect he’ll get as close to his strongest team as possible. I’m probably completely wrong with this guess and of course everything changes if Summerville is available. I believe there is a doubt over Traore so for the purposes of my precited team, I’ll imagine he’s unavailable otherwise he’d be in instead of Potts.
For that reason, I wouldn’t expect much in the way of revealing training footage from the club media this week.
Position West Ham
GK Hermansen
RB Wan-Bissaka
CB Todibo
CB Disasi
LB Diouf
CM Souček
CM Potts
LW Fernandes
RW Bowen
CF Castellanos
CF Pablo
Prediction
I actually think we can get something here.
Under the lights at the London Stadium, with the crowd right behind the team and City potentially having one eye on their huge European fixture schedule, this might just be one of those nights.
City will dominate possession as usual, but West Ham look far more resilient recently and capable of hurting teams on the counter.
I’ll go for West Ham 1–1 Manchester City.