Saturday 23rd January Kickoff: 1730hrs
West Ham United v Manchester City
Football – England – Premier League
West Ham have surprised many this year with their consistency, particularly as they had a change in manager over the summer, and finished last season rather poorly. Slaven Bilic took over from Sam Allardyce and the former Hammers defender could not have wished for a better start to his time in charge as they won 2-0 away to Arsenal on the opening day of the season. Not content with that, West Ham also picked up away wins at Liverpool and against this weekend’s opponents, in the early weeks of the campaign. Those wins – and performances – have set the tone for the rest of the season, and despite a number of key players missing from injury at various stages, Bilic has guided his team to sixth place in the league – only four points outside the top four. Whether or not Champions League qualification is a realistic ambition remains to be seen, but it is looking less and less likely that this West Ham team will collapse as they did 12 months ago in the latter part of the season.
Manchester City, many people’s favourites for the title before a ball was kicked this season, continue to frustrate their supporters with a lack of consistency – both in performance and results. After coming back from a goal down against Watford in their first match of January, the expectation was that Manuel Pellegrini’s men would kick on and assert some authority in what has been an unpredictable battle for the title. However, dropped points at home to Everton – on another frustrating evening – was further notice that there is a need for a lot of improvement if they are to win their third title in five seasons. City’s cause has been helped with Arsenal and Leicester both dropping points as well, of late, and you have to think that at some point, they will find some consistency and go on a sustained winning run. Last Saturday’s comfortable success at home to Crystal Palace may well provide the foundation for that run.
Key to much of West Ham’s success this season has been the form of Dimitri Payet who is enjoying a terrific debut campaign in English football. Signed from Marseille in the summer, the attacking midfielder was sensational in his first three months before suffering an injury in November. He made his return to first-team action at the beginning of this month and he’s beginning to have a similar level of influence as he builds towards full fitness. The Hammers have lost just three of the 15 league games that the French Internationalist has featured in, and the team as a whole lost their first game in ten when going down 2-1 to Newcastle last weekend, bringing an end to a four game winning run. In a season where they have already shown they are more than capable of matching the best teams in this league, the visit of City on Saturday should hold no fears as West Ham attempt to get back to winning ways.
Much of City’s inconsistency this term can be attributed to injuries to key players, particularly those suffered by Sergio Aguero. The Argentine striker has missed nearly two months of the season and it has had a massive impact on his team. One of the best, if not the best, player in the league, Aguero brings so much quality and inspiration to the rest of the team when he plays, and has a great relationship and understanding with David Silva. Without him, City have struggled as there’s a distinct lack of pace and movement up top. That is not a slight on his understudy’s, more a measure of how good he is. Now back in the team and getting a prolonged run to get back to 100%, Aguero is wasting no time in trying to propel his club into pole position, scoring four goals in his last five.
West Ham United v Manchester City Betting Tips
It was a huge surprise when West Ham travelled to City’s own backyard and left with all three points, however, fast-forward five months and seeing that there are only three places and eight points separating them, the gap between the two may not be as great as in previous years. There are many reasons why this is the case, but they key is that Bilic’s men will likely be very competitive once again, as they bid to do the double over Pellegrini and his players.
I think this has all the hallmarks of being a very exciting contest between two teams who are at their best going forward. The return to fitness, and form, of players such as Payet and Aguero, cannot be underestimated as they bring so much quality to proceedings and have proven to be their respective team’s talisman.
City may not have been as free-scoring as we have become accustomed to in previous seasons, but they are still the top-scorers in the Premier League – scoring at least four goals more than any other team. West Ham have also shown some real attacking intent under Bilic and have scored in all but one of their home games in 2015/16. Both sides do have issues in defence, however, as the hosts have kept just three clean sheets in the league at Upton Park, whilst City have really struggled to keep teams out with Vincent Kompany being sidelined for much of the season.
Eight of the last ten meetings between West Ham and Man City have all contained at least three goals and that’s the selection for the late kick-off on Saturday. The two played out a very high-quality and entertaining game at this venue last season, and with both averaging over 2.5 goals in their games this season, I’m confident we’ll see at least three goals once again.
Over 2.5 goals 3/4 @ BetVictor
