Real Football Man All of the Football, All of the time
Editor’s Note: Article written before Tuesday’s Premier League action
These two sides have met only recently and it’s an encounter that West Ham will certainly want to forget as Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City side ran out incredibly easy 5-0 winners at The London Stadium. Tonight Slaven Bilic will want to exact revenge and further derail City’s hopes of a top 4 finish come the end of the season.
West Ham come into this game not only refreshed after that aforementioned cup defeat but also off the back of successive league wins which did see them move into the top half of the table before the start of these midweek fixtures.
Last time out they were comfortable winners over Middlesbrough at The Riverside Stadium. That 3-1 win was added to a resounding home victory the week before against Crystal Palace. The constant in those two matches has been the performances of Andy Carroll.
Carroll scored an outrageous overhead kick in the 3-0 win over Palace and he was also on hand to open the scoring 10 days ago away at Middlesbrough. With his fitness seemingly back in check he will look to continue this run of form when Manchester City return to East London.
Manchester City find themselves 5th in the table as both they and cross town rivals United are the odd teams out as 6 sides aim to fill the top 4 qualifying spots for The Champions League next season. The reason City find themselves on the outside looking in is down to the fact they have only picked up 1 point from their last two matches.
After an out sorts City were soundly beaten 4-0 by Everton at Goodison Park just over a fortnight ago they then had to make do with just a point at home to Tottenham when by rights it should have been nothing less than City earning all three.
A 2-0 lead was squandered but the game should have been put to bed well before that as Pep Guardiola’s men spurned countless chances, the bulk of that wastefulness has to be aimed at Raheem Sterling but the finger will really be pointed at Andre Mariner.
City fans will still be asking how a penalty was not awarded after Kyle Walker’s blatant push on Sterling. A decision or lack thereof that ultimately changed the game. Had City at 2-1 up been awarded a spot kick and Walker been shown his marching orders then regardless of whether the Penalty was converted it would have been game over.
But as we know the penalty was not awarded, Walker stayed on the pitch and to make matters worse Heung-min Son leveled matters just to make matters worse and increase the ire of Pep Guardiola even further. A frustrating turn of events but more frustrating is that it’s another 2 points dropped with City’s title hopes all but evaporating.
So with City unlikely to deliver the title in Guardiola’s debut season then a top 4 finish has to be the target now and to do that they are going to have find a run of form like the one in which they started this season. That 100% run in the first 6 games had many awarding them title already but how wrong we have all been proved to be.
But forget a run of 6 straight wins just a return to winning ways would be nice for City and thankfully for fans of the blue half of Manchester I think they will do so Tonight. West Ham have looked good in their last two wins but they have not really been up against any real competition.
We all know how the cup game panned out at the beginning and I don’t think the scoreline will be at the same kind of level but I do think the outcome will ultimately end up being the same. City to win a first league game in three and keep in the hunt for a top 4 spot.
