West Ham welcome Manchester City to the London Stadium in a huge Premier League clash.
Victory would see West Ham climb to sixth on goal difference from Manchester United who aren’t in action again, until the final day of the season.
Man City meanwhile can extend their lead in the title race against Liverpool to six points with a win and move to within grasp of the title.
Team News
Said Benrahma is a doubt for West Ham as he struggles to recover from an ankle injury suffered in last weekend’s 4-0 victory at Norwich.
Craig Dawson (calf) and Michail Antonio (hip) are also doubtful but Angelo Ogbonna (knee) remains ruled out.
Man City could be without Aymeric Laporte after he suffered a knee injury in Wednesday’s 5-1 win at Wolves.
Fernandinho (muscle) is a doubt but Ruben Dias (hamstring), Kyle Walker (ankle), John Stones (muscle) and Benjamin Mendy (personal) remain absent.
Stat Attack
- West Ham have claimed just two points from their last 12 league meetings against Manchester City (D2, L10).
- Man City have avoided defeat in each of their last six league visits to West Ham (W4, D2).
- David Moyes’ Hammers have lost each of their last two clashes against City by 2-1 results.
- Six of Jarrod Bowen’s ten league goals for West Ham this season have been scored on his left foot.
- Coming into this matchweek, Man City have hit a joint league-high 14 goals from outside of the box this season alongside Chelsea.
Prediction
Having endured a rough few weeks, West Ham certainly seemed back to their best with a dominant win where they controlled the match with relative ease, complete with bright attacking intensity and movement across the pitch.
Man City meanwhile were simply relentless at Wolves on Wednesday evening with Kevin De Bruyne in particular looking a total nightmare to handle, although they did learn quickly how to cover Wolves’ counter-attacks after conceding early on so I expect a tough performance to come here.
City also will head to West Ham with a good away record in this fixture although the Hammers did hold them in the League Cup in October, which the hosts will need to use as defensive motivation to stop Man City moving to within an inch of the title.
I however just can’t see that happening if Man City turn out another classic attacking performance, although West Ham should look to at least try and make a decent fist of a match here.
Prediction: West Ham 1-3 Manchester City
Result: West Ham 2-2 Manchester City