Barclays Premier League
Manchester City v West Ham United
City of Manchester Stadium
Monday 28 September
8pm
Referee: Chris Foy
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Introduction
• West Ham United travel to high-flying Manchester City for their fifth away game of the season and their fourth in the north west of England. The Hammers have had mixed luck on the road so far, beating Wolverhampton Wanderers on the opening day before drawing with Blackburn Rovers and losing out to Wigan Athletic and then Bolton Wanderers in the Carling Cup on Tuesday.
• Monday night's game will be West Ham's second consecutive league game televised live on ESPN - the third of the season so far following the visits of Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool to the Boleyn Ground.
• The Hammers sit in 16th place in the fledgling Barclays Premier League standings with four points from five matches, while Manchester City are eight points and 12 places ahead, having played the same amount of games.
• West Ham and Manchester City are the only two sides in this season's Premier League yet to be behind at half-time.
• It was honours even last season as City beat the Hammers 3-0 in the corresponding fixture on 24 August 2008. West Ham got their revenge in the return match, though, with a single Jack Collison goal securing the win for the east Londonders at the Boleyn Ground on 1 March. That victory halted a run of seven games without a win against the Citizens stretching back to 2006. Four of those six games came in the 2007/08 season.
• The 2007/08 league season started with City's trip to the Boleyn Ground on 11 August - the first game in charge for manager Sven-Goran Eriksson, who lasted only a season. Rolando Bianchi and Geovanni scored the goals as City won 2-0.
• That was followed by the first FA Cup third-round meeting on 5 January, again in east London. Neither side could break the deadlock in a contest that saw Robert Green and Joe Hart excel. The replay at the City of Manchester Stadium on 16 January was again a tight affair and only a 73rd-minute headed goal from Elano separated the sides.
• The final meeting of that season was the 1-1 league draw four days later on 20 January. Carlton Cole scored a terrific overhead kick in the eighth minute before Darius Vassell struck a 16th-minute equaliser.
• West Ham United's biggest victories against Manchester City are a 6-1 home success in the old First Division on 18 May 1963 and victory by the same margin in the away fixture that season on 8 September 1962.
• This is the 88th meeting between the two sides. West Ham have come out on top on 35 occasions with 14 draws.
Last meeting
• On 1 March this year, West Ham United edged a closely-fought encounter in what was, at the time, a key match in the hunt for a UEFA Europa League place.
• With 20 minutes to go, Jack Collison was on hand to loop in a rebound after Shay Given could only palm Savio's shot into his path. Despite the result that day, neither side were to secure European football for this season with West Ham finishing ninth on 51 points and City a point and a place below.
The teams that day were -
West Ham United: Green, Neill, Tomkins, Upson, Ilunga, Behrami (Savio 43), Parker, Collison, Kovac (Spector 83), Di Michele (Lopez 45), Cole
Subs: Lastuvka, Payne, Stanislas, Sears
Goal: Collison (70)
Manchester City: Given, Zabaleta, Onuoha, Dunne, Richards (Caicedo 15), De Jong (Bojinov 89), Ireland, Kompany, Bridge, Robinho, Bellamy (Elano 65)
Subs: Hart, Garrido, Berti, Vassell
Last time out
Tuesday 22 September 2009
Carling Cup third round
Bolton Wanderers 3-1 West Ham United
West Ham United: Green, Spector, Tomkins, Da Costa ('Gala 63), Ilunga, Noble, Parker, Kovac, Dyer (Cole 75), Diamanti, Hines (Faubert 88)
Subs: Kurucz, Payne, Edgar, Nouble
Goal: Ilunga (59)
Wednesday 23 September 2009
Carling Cup third round
Manchester City 2-1 Fulham
Manchester City: Given, Bridge, Zabaleta, Lescott, Toure, Ireland (Petrov 75), Wright-Phillips, Barry, De Jong (Weiss 91), Tevez, Bellamy
Subs: Taylor, Garrido, Sylvinho, Vidal, Petrov, Weiss, Ball
Goals: Barry (52), Toure (111)
Referee
• Monday's referee will be Chris Foy.
• Now 46, Foy started refereeing at the age of 20 in 1983. He joined the Football League list of assistant referees in 1994 and the Premier League assistant referees' list a year later.
• Foy became a Football League referee in 1996 before being promoted to the Premier League list in 2001, taking charge of his first top-flight fixture in December of that year.
• Foy took charge of the 2007 FA Trophy final between Stevenage Borough and Kidderminster Harriers at Wembley on 12 May 2007.
• He returned to the national stadium as fourth official for the 2008 FA Cup final between Portsmouth and Cardiff City before refereeing last season's Carling Cup final between Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur.
• Foy has been actively involved in the 'Don't X The Line' campaign to eradicate abusive or aggressive behaviour from players and spectators at junior and youth matches.
• Foy took charge of three West Ham fixtures last season, refereeing the Hammers' 1-0 defeat at Hull City on 19 October, the 2-0 defeat to Tottenham Hotspur on 8 December and the 1-1 draw with Blackburn Rovers on 21 March.
• This will be Foy's second West Ham United match this season, after taking charge of the opening day win against Wolves.
• Foy also took charge of the FA Community Shield match between Chelsea and Manchester United.
Old boys
• There could be a couple of familiar faces on show at the City of Manchester Stadium on Monday.
• Craig Bellamy scored seven goals in 24 league games for West Ham United between July 2007 and January 2009. He moved to Manchester City for an undisclosed fee on 19 January.
• He could be joined in attack by former Hammer of the Year Carlos Tevez, who left the Boleyn Ground to join City's great cross-town rivals Manchester United at the end of the 2006/07 season. He joined the blue half of the city for an undisclosed fee in June.
• Other famous faces to have played for both clubs are Ian Bishop, James Cumming, Justin Fashanu, David James, Patrick Leonard, Steve Lomas, Trevor Morley, John Payne, Stuart Pearce, Trevor Sinclair, Paulo Wanchope and Mark Ward.
Last six meetings
Head to head (last six meetings, league unless stated)
1 March 2009 - West Ham United 1-0 Manchester City
24 August 2008 - Manchester City 3-0 West Ham United
20 January 2008 - Manchester City 1-1 West Ham United
16 January 2008 - Manchester City 1-0 West Ham United (FA Cup)
5 January 2008 - West Ham United 0-0 Manchester City (FA Cup)
11 August 2007 - West Ham United 0-2 Manchester City
Overall record v Manchester City (all competitions) W 35 D 14 L 39
West Ham United
• West Ham United manager Gianfranco Zola said: "I have a lot of admiration for them. They have a lot of talent and they are working very hard to be a team too. The results have been very good so I have a lot of respect for them."
• Robert Green has played 93 consecutive Barclays Premier League games - more than any other player in the top-flight currently. All being well, he will reach his unbroken century away to Hull City on Saturday 21 November.
• Four players - Mark Noble, Matthew Upson, Alessandro Diamanti and Carlton Cole (twice) - have got on the league scoresheet for the Hammers so far this season.
• Cole has had more shots (17) than any other West Ham player this season, with nine of them on target.
• Noble leads the way in the assists chart, with two to his name.
• Scott Parker has won more free-kicks than any other Hammers player (13)
• Cole has also done his bit at the back with more defensive clearances (5) than anyone else.
• Cole led the way in the scoring charts last season as well with ten Premier League goals, one in the FA Cup and one in the League Cup.
• The Hammers finished last season in ninth in the Barclays Premier League with 51 points, a place and two points higher than they managed in the previous season.
• West Ham have recorded exactly 700 Premier League points so far, with the 0-0 draw at Ewood Park taking them to that milestone.
• Diamanti's appearance as a substitute at the DW Stadium two weeks ago saw him become the 800th player to represent West Ham.
• West Ham are next in action on Sunday 4 October when they play host to Fulham in the Barclays Premier League.
Manchester City
• Speaking about why Craig Bellamy played in Manchester City's midweek Carling Cup win over Fulham, manager Mark Hughes said: "My only concern is that given Craig's injury history I am reluctant to play him in three games in a week. It is the only the fact we are playing on Monday that I was able to play him. We hope everyone recovers by then and the two extra days makes all the difference."
• Man City saw their 100 per cent record in the league this season halted in the Manchester derby at Old Trafford last weekend as a Michael Owen strike six minutes into injury time gave United a 4-3 victory.
• Mark Hughes' team have shipped six goals in their last two games against United and Arsenal.
• However, they are unbeaten at home and have managed to keep clean sheets in all their other league games this term.
• City's leading goalscorer this season is Emanuel Adebayor with four league goals. Bellamy has three to his name after his brace at Old Trafford.
• Carlos Tevez has had the most shots on goal (10) and has the most assists (3) out of any City player.
• New recruit Joleon Lescott has made more defensive clearances (15) than any other player.
• It is 50 league games since City were last involved in a goalless draw.
• Manchester City are unbeaten at home in the league to West Ham since April 2003, winning three of four matches.
• City are next in action seven days after the West Ham game when they play Aston Villa at Villa Park, also on ESPN.
Team news
• With the game not until Monday evening, both managers still have two full days of training ahead of them to finalise their plans for the game.
• One player expected to return is Chilean forward Luis Jimenez, who has recovered from a muscle injury and has returned to full training.
• Guillermo Franco could be in line to make his debut, but will have some tough competition for a place in the shape of the in-form Cole and Zavon Hines.
• Valon Behrami continues to edge closer to fitness after his slight muscle injury, although a decision will not be taken on his selection until Sunday.
• Manchester City will definitely be without Emmanuel Adebayor, who is serving the last game of a three-match suspension.
• Stephen Ireland is doubtful after being concussed in the Carling Cup match with Fulham.
• Robinho and Vincent Kompany remain sidelined.
General information
• For ticket information, click here. For details of getting to the City of Manchester Stadium, click here.
• The weather forecast is for light rain with a top temperature of around 18C.