City are back at home on Sunday, as they look to recover from the damaging derby defeat last weekend; West Ham are the visitors to Eastlands, with Manuel Pellegrini hoping to get the three points to allay any fears that City won’t even got top four, with just six games of the season left.
Of course, a large proportion of City fans will have fond memories of the last time The Hammers visited The Etihad; and for good reason. They came to east Manchester in the final game of last season, with City likely to win the title that day. Thanks to Samir Nasri and Vincent Kompany, we managed to take that chance and win the title, without much trouble from West Ham.
However, in the previous game against West Ham this season, it wasn’t quite so easy for The Blues. In fact, that was the one of the games that most will probably point to this season and say “we could have done better there”. We started off okay, but ended up going behind mid-way through the first half thanks to Amalfitano, before conceding again from Sakho with 15 minutes to go in the second. Silva scored almost immediately, but it wasn’t enough and we eventually finished as 2-1 losers.
With City hoping to improve on that, they do have some absentees that add to the worries. While Dedryck Boyata should return (and probably not be involved) from his injury, we are without Wilfried Bony (ankle), Stevan Jovetic (muscle), Vincent Kompany (thigh), James Milner (knee) and Gael Clichy (muscle); that, while concerning in itself, is manageable with replacements being available in every position.
On the other hand, The Hammers don’t have many injury concerns to consider going into Sunday’s game. While Andy Carroll, James Tomkins and Diafra Sakho are all out with knee ligament, shoulder and thigh injuries respectively, Enner Valencia should be fit, recovering from an ankle injury.
With Liverpool just four points behind City, The Blues cannot afford to slip up in many more games. The visit of The Hammers provides a golden opportunity to put a bigger gap between City and their closest chasing challengers, although Liverpool don’t have a Premier League fixture this weekend; they face Aston Villa at Wembley on Sunday.
If some of these players are hoping to be assured of their place in the squad for next season, they need to perform to the best of their abilities in the coming six games, as City aim to secure a place in – at the very least – the play-off round of next year’s Champions League. Manuel Pellegrini also needs to show he can win games when it really matters, especially with rumours that the club are still happy with him, and want to keep him on next season – if that’s the case, he needs the fans on his side. Sunday could be a good place to start.
