West Ham and Manchester City kick off the FA Cup weekend with their clash at the Olympic Stadium on Friday. Manchester City won this season's league fixture with West Ham 3-1 at the Etihad Stadium, but last season West Ham grabbed a 2-1 victory at the Citizens and a 2-2 draw at home. Man City have won three of the last six matches against the Hammers.
After a spell of three consecutive Premier League wins, West Ham suffered back-to-back defeats in which they failed to score any goals. On New Year's Eve they lost 1-0 at Leicester, and a few days later they got beaten 2-0 at home by Manchester United. That match was heavily influenced by the red card shown to Sofiane Feghouli early in the game, but the player won't be suspended as the sanction was rescinded by the FA. Cheikhou Kouyate will not play as he is with Senegal at the Africa Cup of Nations.
Manchester City recovered from their 1-0 loss at Liverpool on New Year's Eve with a 2-1 home victory over Burnley this week, a match that was made very difficult for Pep Guardiola's men after Fernandinho got sent off once again. He is now banned for another four matches, while Vincent Kompany and Ilkay Gundogan remain injured. Leroy Sane missed the last three matches due to a knock but he might make his return in this match. Guardiola might choose to give some young players a chance to prove themselves in this fixture.
Probable line-ups:
West Ham: Adrian - Antonio, Reid, Ogbonna, Cresswell - Obiang, Noble - Feghouli, Lanzini, Ayew - Carroll
Man City: Caballero - Zabaleta, Otamendi, Stones, Clichy - Fernando - Sterling, Toure, Garcia, Nolito - Aguero
My prediction: Man City to win 2-1.
Here are the odds for the match at Bet365:
West Ham win - 5.50
Draw - 4.10
Man City win - 1.67
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Comments (1)
sharpe
01/13/17, 12:01:00 AM
Of course Man City were favourites but I don't think too many people expected so convincing win for them. West Ham performing in the two ends of the scale this...
Of course Man City were favourites but I don't think too many people expected so convincing win for them. West Ham performing in the two ends of the scale this season they are either very poor or quite good and this time it was really bad performance and despite some missing player they were fully outplayed. That was an important victory for City and their confidence after their controversial performances lately.
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