Depleted Manchester City hope to keep pace with Liverpool by beating Hammers

Manchester City hope to overcome a potential banana skin in West Ham to keep pace with leaders Liverpool.

The Citizens recent Carabao Cup win ticks off one of the multitude of trophies targeted by Pep Guardiola and his side this season, but the chase for the Premier League title is still very much on. Liverpool grabbed a point against Manchester United to take themselves above Manchester City by that single point.

West Ham are hoping to finish as high up the table as they possibly can. Manuel Pellegrini has guided his side to safety with relative ease this season, but the draw of a seventh place finish in the Premier League is not out of reach for the East London side and the Chilean will be hoping he can derail his former employers title charge to benefit his own cause.

Pep Guardiola revealed his injury woes ahead of the West Ham match. The Spaniard conceded that Gabriel Jesus, John Stones, Fernandinho and Aymeric Laporte will all miss this fixture. However, French full back Benjamin Mendy is fit and ready to challenge Aleksandr Zinchenko for that starting berth.

Manuel Pellegrini last week welcomed back the long awaited return of Manuel Lanzini, the Argentine came on as a substitute against Fulham for his first appearance of the season. Marko Arnautovic also made a return to the fold in that game. Winston Reid returned to training this week but is far from ready to play, whilst Jack Wilshere, Fabio Balbuena, Andriy Yarmalenko and Carlos Sanchez continue to be long term absentees.

Manchester City are in fine form, having won 14 of their last 15 games, including that Carabao Cup final win. The only loss coming against Newcastle back in January. West Ham meanwhile, come into the game off the back of their first win in five. Their 3-1 win at Fulham was their first in all competitions since beating Arsenal 1-0, with Declan Rice scoring the winner.

West Ham last earned a point against Manchester City in 2016, a 2-2 draw, with Enner Valencia and Sergio Aguero both scoring a double. Manchester City have since won the last 7 fixtures between these sides, conceding just three goals, with four clean sheets.