West Ham vs. Manchester City: Key Issues That Will Shape Premier League Match
Manchester City had virtually endless joy at West Ham United's expense last season.
City and the Hammers played four matches in 2013/14, two in the Premier League and two in the Capital One Cup. The aggregate score of those four matches was City 14-1 West Ham.
It was four matches and four wins for City against West Ham last season. Perhaps it was fitting, then, that it was the Hammers who reserved a prominent place for themselves in the 2013/14 City yearbook by serving as the foil in the match that clinched City's second Premier League title in three seasons.
Might Sam Allardyce's charges have circled this match on this season's fixture list? Surely the Hammers have some scores to settle.
Here are five key issues that will shape Manchester City's match with West Ham United at Upton Park.
Don't Call It a Comeback
1 of 5
That is not a misprint in the current Premier League table.
City are second to Chelsea, with Southampton residing in its now seemingly annual place in the early table way up the ladder in third.
Expected contenders Liverpool, Manchester United and Arsenal are holding down the fifth through seventh places. But that's not Tottenham Hotspur or Everton in fourth place. It's West Ham.
Reasonable minds can disagree on whether the Hammers are a legitimate threat to qualify for European play or if this fine early form is more of a reflection of a soft early schedule. Three of West Ham's wins in the Premier League came against Crystal Palace, Queens Park Rangers and Burnley.
But you can only play the teams on the schedule in the order they are presented. A win over City would go a long way toward proving that West Ham are set for a successful league season.
No Lead Is Safe for Manchester City
2 of 5
If Allardyce really wants to put Manuel Pellegrini's City team in a bad spot, he should probably have West Ham concede a goal early.
City have blown leads and thus missed out on victory in matches away to Arsenal, home to AS Roma and away to CSKA Moscow this season.
They averted disaster after losing the lead at Hull City, but that match was still a plain illustration of City's resistance to prosperity.
My B/R colleague Rob Pollard is right that City's inability to put opponents away is a fatal flaw. But an elite side probably should not need, say, a third goal at CSKA Moscow to make the result safe. A 2-0 lead at the half ought to be enough.
For City this season, a one-goal lead feels like no lead and a two-goal lead provides no comfort. This is not how a defending Premier League champion should be defending hard-earned advantages.
City Are Trying to Throw Away a Transcendent Season from Sergio Aguero
3 of 5
Imagine that a City fan went without team news for the past three months and went online to see that City are five points back of Chelsea in the Premier League and winless through three Champions League Group E matches.
That City fan's most likely reaction, absent more information, would be to conclude that something must be wrong with Aguero. Actually, it's worse than that.
City are floundering in spite of Aguero's prolific start to the 2014/15 season.
Aguero has scored 11 times for City in all competitions. He has at least one goal in each of his last five appearances for City, including two Champions League goals and a four-goal cloudburst against Tottenham Hotspur.
If Aguero keeps scoring at this rate and City keep falling apart around him, is it really that far-fetched to think that Aguero might think about seeking a transfer?
Let's pretend I didn't just think that.
City Will Have Some Fans at This Match, Unlike How Their Last Match Turned out
4 of 5
Upton Park promises to be packed with West Ham supporters throatily urging the home side to vanquish mighty Man City.
But there will also surely be that normal traveling cohort of City supporters jammed into a corner of the ground offering the Sky Blues what support they can. As City captain Vincent Kompany said, that sort of vocal minority is more important than one might think.
Kompany has hit out at UEFA after CSKA Moscow's purported stadium ban for multiple past episodes of fan malfeasance served only to keep any City fans from attending the sides' 2-2 draw in Moscow this week.
"You say 'No fans' then all of a sudden you turn up and basically the only team that hasn't got fans is Man City," Kompany said according to Mark Ogden in The Telegraph. "So who's getting punished? Who is being done for racism? Man City or Moscow, you know?"
Put it this way: If City cough up another 2-0 lead on the road against West Ham, they will not have to worry about their supporters being absent or silent in any way.
It May Seem Early to Be Scoreboard Watching, but It Probably Isn't
5 of 5
Manchester City supporters normally look for Manchester United to lose as embarrassingly as possible on any given weekend.
Not this Sunday, though.
United are five back of City in the Premier League table, i.e. the same distance that City are trailing Chelsea by.
United host the league leaders this weekend, and if City manage to win against West Ham on Saturday they will more than halve the deficit to Chelsea before they play at Old Trafford.
With a win over West Ham, even a draw by United would bring the Citizens to within real touching distance of Jose Mourinho's side.
So, um, come on United? Yeah, that sounds awful. Maybe City supporters should just keep this weekend's support for United on the down low.
