West Ham United look to cause another cupset as they welcome Manchester City to London Stadium in Wednesday’s stand-out Fourth Round tie of this season’s Carabao Cup.
West Ham are looking to reach the Quarter-Finals for the third time in the last six seasons, whereas Man City seek to avoid a second Fourth Round exit in six seasons.
Team News
West Ham manager, David Moyes has no fresh injury concerns as he prepares to rotate his squad with Alphonse Areola, Manuel Lanzini and Nikola Vlasic amongst those set to start.
Vladimir Coufal, Ryan Frederick (both groin) and Alex Kral (Coronavirus) remain ruled out.
Man City could be without Raheem Sterling due to a back injury but manager, Pep Guardiola is set to rotate his squad for this clash amidst a hectic schedule.
Ferran Torres (foot), Liam Delap (ankle) and Benjamin Mendy (personal) remain absent.
Stat Attack
- West Ham are winless in four previous League Cup meetings against Manchester City (D1, L3).
- Man City have won their two previous League Cup visits to West Ham, albeit at the Hammers’ former home ground – Upton Park.
- West Ham have lost just one of their last four home ties in this competition (W3, L1), with three players netting braces across three of those four matches.
- Excluding the Final on neutral territory and penalty shootouts, Pep Guardiola’s Citizens have won four of their six away League Cup ties against fellow Premier League opposition (W4, D2).
- This is the second consecutive EFL Cup round in which Jonathan Moss has refereed a game involving West Ham, with the Hammers knocking out Manchester United 1-0 in Third Round last month.
Prediction
West Ham come into this match in strong form after netting in all seven home matches across all competitions this season, which does give them confidence for this tricky contest but if they can continue to play with excellent attacking intent and pressing, they could cause some issues here.
Man City meanwhile have hit a golden patch with 11 goals in their last three matches with none of those goals coming from up front, which is simply outstanding but I do expect Guardiola to make changes which could leave them vulnerable if they start like they did at home to Wycombe last month.
If that does indeed happen and they concede first, West Ham won’t be as easy to recover against unlike Wycombe but I am expecting a good contest which City should edge on pure quality alone.
Prediction: West Ham 1-2 Manchester City
Result: West Ham 0-0 Manchester City (West Ham win 5-3 on penalties!!)