Haaland eyes new Premier League record as City hosts Hammers

Manchester City welcomes West Ham United to the Etihad on Saturday afternoon as they hope to claim a fifth consecutive Premier League victory.

The Citizens booked their spot in the last four of the League Cup with a 2-0 win over Brentford on Wednesday night. Pep Guardiola’s men secured a comfortable 3-0 victory over Crystal Palace in the Premier League last time out.

The Hammers suffered a 3-2 home defeat to Aston Villa last weekend, leaving them 18th on the Premier League standings.

Match preview

Manchester City are unbeaten in their last 19 Premier League games against West Ham (W16 D3) since a 2-1 home defeat in September 2015.

West Ham have lost 15 of their last 16 Premier League away games against Man City, with the exception being a 2-1 win in September 2015 under Slaven Bilic.

City have won their last five Premier League games against West Ham, scoring at least three goals each time. Only Arsenal against Sunderland (2002 to 2007) and Manchester United against Nottingham Forest (1996 to 2022) have won six in a row against an opponent while scoring 3+ goals each time.

Guardiola’s side have lost none of their last 46 Premier League home games against sides starting the day in the relegation zone (W42 D4), since a 2-1 loss to Tottenham in November 2008. They’ve won each of the last 14 by an aggregate score of 43-7.

If the Hammers fail to win this match, they are guaranteed to be in the relegation zone at Christmas. It will be the fifth time they’ve been in the bottom three at Christmas in the Premier League, but they’ve avoided relegation on the two previous occasions they weren’t bottom (18th in 2006/07, 19th in 2009/10).

Since the start of April, Manchester City has won the most home games (12) and home points (36) in the Premier League, failing to win just once in that sequence, a 2-0 defeat to Spurs.

West Ham have drawn their last three away Premier League matches, taking the lead in two of those before being pegged back.

Erling Haaland has scored nine Premier League goals against West Ham, only netting more against Wolves (10). He could be the ninth player to score 10+ against the Hammers and only the third non-Englishman after Mohamed Salah and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink.

Team news

Manchester City

Oscar Bobb suffered a hamstring injury in midweek’s win over Brentford and has joined Mateo Kovacic, Jeremy Doku, John Stones, and Rodri on the injury list.

Omar Marmoush and Rayan Ait-Nouri are away on international duty with Egypt and Algeria, respectively, at the Africa Cup of Nations.

West Ham United

Lukasz Fabianski is the only absentee with injury.

While Aaron Wan-Bissaka and El Hadji Malick Diouf are both away with DR Congo and Senegal at AFCON.

Predicted line-ups

Manchester City: Donnarumma, Nunes, Dias, Gvardiol, O’Reilly, Gonzalez, Bernardo, Reijnders, Cherki, Foden, Haaland.

West Ham United: Areola, Mavropanos, Todibo, Kilman, Walker-Peters, Magassa, Potts, Scarles, Paqueta, Fernandes, Bowen.