Manchester City v West Ham
Date: Saturday 19th September 2015 17:30 BST
Competition: Barclays Premier League
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Squad (from):Caballero, Hart, Wright, Demichelis, Kolarov, Kompany (lets hope he is OK and no calf injury), Mangala, Sagna, Fernandinho, Nasri, Navas, Toure, De Bruyne, Silva, Sterling, Bony, Aguero
Injuries/Suspensions: Clichy, Zabaleta, Fernando, Delph
Squad (from): Randolph, Adrián, Spiegel, Reid, Cresswell, Tomkins, Jenkinson, Collins, Oxford, Knoyle, Kouyaté, Obiang, Noble, Amalfitano, Moses, Payet, Lanzini, Antonio, Cullen, Samuelsen, Carroll, Sakho, Jelavic, Lee
Injuries /Suspensions: Ogbonna, Song, Zárate, Valencia, O’Brien
KEY BATTLES
After plummeting out of the Europa League West Ham have started the Premier League season very well. The Hammers have picked up victories away from home against Arsenal and Liverpool and look very dangerous playing away. Central to their positive start has been Payet who has impressed with his strength, skill, power, passing range and shooting ability. The commentator during the Newcastle game likened him to Carlos Tevez which is a fairly decent comparison when you consider his strengths and style of play. Payet would appear to be an absolute steal at £10M; Payet appears in the Top European league player stats of the 2014-15 season numerous times. Dimitri Payet (Marseille) had 17 assists only bettered by Fabregas (Chelsea) 18, Messi (Barcelona) 18 and De Bruyne (Wolfsburg) 20. Dimitri Payet (Marseille) 133 was top man for most chances created finishing just above second best Kevin De Bruyne (Wolfsburg) 111. Dimitri Payet (Marseille) 86 was second best statistically for Most crosses completed behind Kieran Trippier (Burnley) 91. Dimitri Payet (Marseille) 21 was also second for Most through-balls completed behind Lionel Messi (Barcelona) 33 with Silva 4th 18. All that considered it’s a huge surprise that West Ham managed to secure his signature firstly at such a modest price and secondly with no real competition for the 28 year old attacking midfielders signature.
I Expect Slaven Bilić will rest one of his forward 3; Carroll will possibly make way for the additional player in central midfield. West Ham had to fend off interest from three top Premier League clubs to keep hold of 16-year-old Reece Oxford and I expect that after a very established debut in the 3v0 win against Liverpool he will be given the opportunity to face Man City. Adrian is likely to return on goals after suspension despite strong performances from Randolph, either keeper should expect to be very busy defending the barrage of City attacks. I hope that we continue with the same back 7 and go for the front 4 that all City fans are desperate to see; Silva, Sterling, De Bruyne and Aguero. Chelsea v Arsenal is the early kick-off and if Chelsea secure the home win and City get a victory that would place them 8 points ahead of Arsenal and 11 ahead of Chelsea before United play a tough match away at Southampton. What I would give for keeping the current logic going 3v0, 3v0, 2v0, 2v0, 1v0, 1v0. Has any team ever won the first 6 without conceding in the Premier League?
City are currently in good Kompany with 100% records in top tier football leagues; they share this accolade with Barcelona (3), Inter Milan (3), Dortmund (4), Bayern (4) and Aberdeen (7) in their respective leagues. After a disappointing performance in Europe City must bounce back with 3 points!!
POTENTIAL LINE UPS
HEAD TO HEAD FIXTURES – Last 10 games
- 11/12/2010 West Ham United A PL 3-1
- 01/05/2011 West Ham United H PL 2-1
- 03/11/2012 West Ham United A PL 0-0
- 27/04/2013 West Ham United H PL 2-1
- 19/10/2013 West Ham United A PL 3-1
- 08/01/2014 West Ham United H LC 6-0
- 21/01/2014 West Ham United A LC 3-0
- 11/05/2014 West Ham United H PL 2-0
- 25/10/2014 West Ham United A PL 1-2
- 19/04/2015 West Ham United H PL 2-0
Manchester City have scored 24 goals in the last ten games against West Ham, Aguero has 5, ______ has 5, YaYa has 4, Silva and Dzeko both scored 2, 1 own goal but which other 5 players scored once?
Further information about the head to head can be found in the Bluemoon History section
You can find the full City team, match reports and Youtube videos here with footage from these matches
REFEREE: Robert Madley
ASST. REF. 1: M McDonough
ASST. REF. 2: M Perry
4TH OFFICIAL: C Pawson
Robert Madley has only refereed 20 to flight matches as you can see with his Match History, he has only refereed a Man City match once versus Leicester in a fairly uneventful match from a card perspective (only 1 booking) – interestingly City were only awarded 6 fouls to the 13 of Leicester.
Sent off Behrami (Watford) in last match which was a deserved red and once sent off 3 player in match between Southmptn 0:3 West Brom. I think we need to be careful in this match and ensure we don’t give the referee the opportunity to influence the game!
BETTING ODDS - Oddchecker
If you think that City could equal the 6v0 victory from the 2014 season you can get odds of 55-1
I think this will be a tight game, I can see us conceding as it’s inevitable it will happen eventually in the Premier League. I also think we will score and win therefore a more reasonable bet would be a City 2v1 (19/2), 3v1 (17/2), 3v2(26/1), 4v1 (16/1) victories. Manchester City haven’t been involved in a 0 v 0 draw for 76 consecutive games since Norwich February 2014; but if you believe this scenario will occur you can get odds of 27/1 for 0v0