Manchester City Match Preview

West Ham United picked up only their second away win of 2022 against newly-promoted Norwich City at Carrow Road last weekend and they will be hoping to take the momentum gained from that victory into their last home game of the season against Premier League leaders Manchester City this afternoon.

The Hammers have already achieved top-flight victories over Tottenham Hotspur, Liverpool and Chelsea here and will be wanting to add Josep Guardiola’s side to that list and if they do, it will send the home crowd away for the summer in a joyous state of mind.

West Ham can count on previous experience of beating the Citizens this season as the two teams met here for a Carabao Cup fourth round tie back in October where the match was decided on a penalty shootout after a goalless draw.

It has rarely happened this season but the hosts have had a full week to prepare for this game, whereas Guardiola’s men had to travel to Wolverhampton Wanderers on Wednesday night but they did bring the three points home from the Black Country.

Club Captain Mark Noble will undoubtedly feature in what will be his final home game as a West Ham player, while Tomáš Souček will be hoping to be restored to the starting line-up after being rested for the last two top-flight encounters.

Both Craig Dawson and Michail Antonio are fit to play after both had to be substituted against Dean Smith’s side following injury. On the other hand, David Moyes stated in his pre-match news conference on Friday that Saïd Benrahma might not be fit to play because of a problem with his ankle.

Just like Noble, Andriy Yarmolenko will hope to make his last appearance as a Hammer after it was revealed earlier in the week that he will be released after the expiry of his current contract. Nikola Vlašić is also in contention, along with Arthur Masuaku and Ben Johnson.

A large number of Premier League matches are being played this afternoon and the game in Stratford has been moved back from what was a 4:30pm kick-off to a 2pm kick-off but will still be screened by Sky Sports with build-up getting underway from 1pm. The referee is Anthony Taylor.