Manchester City v West Ham United - Premier League Preview

By the time Manchester City take to the field to face West Ham United, the destiny of the Premier League title may already be pretty much decided. But City cannot afford to take anything for granted, as a defeat in this game or in their other outstanding Premier League fixture against Aston Villa would open the door for Liverpool to claim an unlikely Premier League crown.

West Ham’s late season has been characterised by some pretty poor performances and a good deal of dissatisfaction on the part of their supporters. While the Hammers realistically couldn’t hope for too much more than a respectable league finish and the retention of their Premier League status, the feeling among the Hammers faithful is that manager Sam Allardyce’s methods are rather too crude for their taste.

Usually Allardyce’s teams are at least difficult to beat, but West Ham can’t even really claim that this season. West Ham beat Tottenham at home last weekend, but lost seven of their previous nine Premier League games before this epiphany. Whether Hammers fans are being reasonable or not is debatable, but there are nevertheless no guarantees that Allardyce will remain in a job next season.

Thus, City could definitely be facing more in-form and confident opposition here. But they will very well remember what nearly happened to them against QPR on the final day of the 2011-12 season, when they very nearly blew their title challenge by losing to a side on the verge of relegation. The obvious difference here is that QPR were battling on that final day to save themselves from relegation, whereas West Ham are completely safe in mid-table anonymity, and have absolutely nothing to play for.

City also have a tremendous home record, even if they did recently slip up against Sunderland, and it’s very hard to see them failing to see off a West Ham side to whom they are superior in every department. There may be a certain pressure on City to perform, but this is something that they’ve dealt with surprisingly well both this season and in their previous title winning campaign.

So it’s impossible to back against City here. There will always be a few nerves around Eastlands for such a fixture, as this is a do or die match, but the home side is considerably better than their opponents and I think class will tell. They can also draw on their previous experience, and the fact that it was ultimately a successful one.

In terms of betting tips for this game, City are completely unbackable, so it’s necessary to look elsewhere for a valid bet. With Negredo out of form and Aguero injury prone, the Edin Dzeko score / win double looks a good bet. In terms of the winning margin, I think City will ultimately end up winning this one quite comfortably, I forecast that their winning margin will be three goals.

Safe Bet – Edin Dzeko score / win double (10/11 with boylesports) Value Bet – Manchester City to win by 3 goals (15/4 with BetVictor)

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06/05/2014     © Frixo 2024