Man City vs West Ham – Analysis, Prediction, Team News
Wednesday 3rd May 2023
20:00 GMT
Etihad Stadium
As part of our midweek Premier League predictions, we take a look at West Ham’s visit to Manchester. City march on towards the title – can West Ham gain a priceless result? Free betting tips and more with our Man City vs West Ham prediction.
Premier League Form:
Man City
Fulham
2-1 (H)
Arsenal
4-1 (H)
Leicester
3-1 (H)
Southampton
4-1 (A)
Liverpool
4-1 (H)
West Ham
Crystal Palace
4-3 (A)
Liverpool
2-1 (H)
Bournemouth
4-0 (A)
Arsenal
2-2 (H)
Fulham
1-0 (A)
Man City vs West Ham Preview
The hosts managed a 2-1 win at Craven Cottage against Fulham on Sunday afternoon in a match that was perhaps tougher than it needed to be. Manchester City were unable to put Fulham away and in the end, were reliant on a goal of the highest quality from Julian Alvarez. While City hit the crossbar and dominated the xG stats, Fulham played well in the first two-thirds of the field but were ultimately stifled apart from a long ball that was brilliantly knocked down by Wilson for the equaliser from Carlos Vinicius.
Not that City will mind – ultimately they were good value for the win (albeit with a closer margin of victory than many expected) and are now firmly in the driving seat for the title race. One point clear of Arsenal with a game in hand, yet also in far better form than their rivals for the Premier League crown and Arsenal arguably face a tougher run-in.
The only issue that in-form City appear to face is fixture congestion. From the 3rd of May to the 3rd of June, City face nine fixtures – 6 in the league, their Champions League semi-final against Real Madrid and the FA Cup final against their cross-city rivals Manchester United. Including this one, City look to have a kinder run-in than Arsenal, with Leeds, Everton and Chelsea unlikely to pose many problems in their current form.
West Ham provided a clear threat from set pieces but ultimately were second best for much of the match away to Crystal Palace. They failed to provide the same kind of threat in transition that they had provided against Arsenal, Gent, Bournemouth and Liverpool – perhaps with hindsight, this wasn’t all too surprising given that the 4-3 away defeat was their 9th fixture in April owing to their continued participation in European competition.
Moyes’ men will certainly be relieved that none of the bottom seven sides involved on the weekend managed a single point. Southampton, Leeds, Forest and Wolves all suffered defeats, with Leicester and Everton to play on Monday evening. The gap to Leicester City in 18th place remains five points, and it’s likely that only a handful of points will be required to preserve their Premier League status.
In order to do so, West Ham face United at home, Brentford away, Leeds at home and Leicester away. Therefore, we can say their fate is firmly in their own hands even if they were to fail to get anything against Manchester United or Brentford. Their ongoing involvement in European competition may pose a few problems, but generally speaking, West Ham have been one of the better sides involved in this season’s relegation battle and it’s difficult to envisage them not being better than at least three teams.
Team News
Injuries and Suspensions
Man City:
Might Not Play:
Will Not Play: Ake, De Bruyne
West Ham:
Might Not Play:
Will Not Play: Scamacca, Zouma
Man City vs West Ham Lineups (Predicted)
Man City (3-2-4-1): Ederson; Walker, Akanji, Dias; Rodri, Stones; Grealish, Gundogan, Mahrez, Silva; Haaland
West Ham (4-2-3-1): Fabianski; Emerson, Ogbonna, Zouma, Coufal; Rice, Soucek; Benrahma, Paqueta, Bowen; Antonio
Man City vs West Ham Analysis
Man City Will Look to Put West Ham Away Early
A condensed fixture calendar hurts West Ham more than it does Manchester City, for the obvious reason that City have far more strength in depth. This is compounded by the fact that City are more likely over the course of a season to be able to rest key players entirely – as they have done with both Kevin De Bruyne and Erling Haaland at various points this season – but also that they find themselves ahead in games far more often and again, can take players off to ensure they’re not overplayed.
With another Premier League fixture three days later, it’s firmly in City’s interests to start their strongest XI available to them at the moment, blitz West Ham in the first half and take off a couple of guys at halftime and progressively through the second half. West Ham are looking tired, understandably so, and they would be forgiven for having an eye on other fixtures as the chances of them turning up at the Etihad and getting a positive result are slim at best.
Will West Ham Be Up For This?
We don’t like to talk about other teams throwing in the towel, and we’re certain that Moyes will demand 100% effort and commitment from the team he selects, but ultimately this is about Premier League survival and squad management. If City make another early breakthrough and West Ham find themselves two or three down, don’t be surprised to see West Ham make similar substitutions in kind as they look to prepare themselves for a more winnable (yet still difficult) fixture against Manchester United at home.
It could be the case that West Ham will come out and look to attack City aggressively on the counter and take some risks in doing so by committing plenty of men forward. If they’re not brave enough to provide their own goal threat, they’ll gradually be broken down and not many can resist City in the current form their in. It makes perfect sense for West Ham to defend compactly, break with numbers and hope to find themselves ahead and dig in from there. Should they fail to do so, we expect them to act accordingly and look to the next game.
Our Prediction
In all likelihood, Man City have far too much for a tired-looking West Ham team, and they’ll be strongly motivated to put them away early to move on to the Leeds game at the weekend. The only scenario in which we see this game being competitive is if West Ham can do what Fulham managed to do and make a breakthrough early in the first half.
We expect that West Ham won’t, in fact, be able to generate much of quality against a City team that is becoming better at dealing with the counter-attack, and one that will be highly motivated by both the title race and by getting the job done as soon as possible. For their part, if they can’t get anything early on and find themselves a couple of goals down, West Ham will probably ’empty the bench’ and move on.
Man City 3-0 West Ham
Man City vs West Ham Betting Tip – Man City -1 (win by 2 goals or more) Odds:
10/17
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