West Ham United v Manchester City
Barclays Premier League
Boleyn Ground
Saturday 11 December 2010
3pm
Referee: Phil Dowd
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Introduction
• West Ham United welcome Manchester City looking for a third straight home win and a sixth game unbeaten at the Boleyn Ground. The visitors are riding high in the Barclays Premier League, and sit just three points behind leaders Arsenal.
• West Ham, still in last place, won 3-1 at home to Wigan Athletic in Barclays Premier League action a fortnight ago and then thrashed Manchester United 4-0 at home on the following Tuesday night in the Carling Cup quarter-finals.
• City have 14 points from eight away games, the second best showing in the top-flight this campaign.
• Manchester City have enjoyed a good run of results at the Boleyn Ground in recent years, winning on two of their last five visits to east London - 1-0 in December 2006 and 2-0 on the opening day of the 2007/08 season in Sven-Goran Eriksson's first match in charge.
• West Ham United's biggest victories over Manchester City both came in the same season - 1962/63. A 6-1 home Division One success on 18 May 1963 was preceded by victory by the same margin in the away fixture on 8 September 1962.
• This is the 90th meeting between the two sides. West Ham have come out on top on 35 occasions with 15 draws.
• Victor Obinna and Mario Balotelli are former team-mates at Internazionale, before both headed to England last summer. Obinna scored twice on a 31 July friendly win for Inter against City in Baltimore, Maryland. The first goal came against Joe Hart, the second after the interval went in past substitute keeper Shay Given.
Last time out
Sunday 5 December 2010
Barclays Premier League
Sunderland 1-0 West Ham United
West Ham United: Green, Gabbidon, Ben Haim (Faubert 83), Upson, Spector, Tomkins, Parker, Dyer (Piquionne 69), Boa Morte (Hines 69), Cole, Obinna
Subs not used: Stech, Kovac, Reid, Barrera
Goals: Spector 22, 37, Cole 55, 66
Saturday 4 December 2010
Barclays Premier League
Manchester City 1-0 Bolton Wanderers
Manchester City: Hart, Kolo Toure (Lescott 32), Kompany, Zabaleta, Kolarov (sent off 78), Yaya Toure, De Jong, Barry, Silva (Richards 84), Tevez (Milner 89), Balotelli
Subs not used: Given, Vieira, A.Johnson, Jo
Goal: Tevez 4
Last meeting
The sides met on the last day of the 2009/10 season, with City confirming a fifth-placed finish with the 1-1 draw and the Hammers having already made certain of top-flight survival. Luis Boa Morte's first goal at the Boleyn Ground came on 17 minutes before Shaun Wright-Phillips cancelled that strike out with a far-post header just four minutes later.
West Ham United: Green, Upson, Da Costa, Daprela, Parker, Kovac, Boa Morte (Franco 64), Faubert, Cole (Stanislas 64), Ilan, Diamanti (Spence 88)
Subs not used: Kurucz, Gabbidon, Spector, McCarthy
Manchester City: Fulop, Kolo Toure, Sylvinho (Tevez 73), Zabaleta, Wright-Phillips, De Jong, Vieira, Kompany, Johnson (Cunningham 89), Adebayor, Santa Cruz (Richards 73)
Subs not used: Nielsen, Garrido, Boyata, Ibrahim
Last six meetings
Head to head (last six meetings, league unless stated)
9 May 2010 - West Ham United 1-1 Manchester City
29 Sept 2009 - Manchester City 3-1 West Ham United
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 third-round replay)
Overall record v Manchester City (all competitions) W 35 D 15 L 40
Ten-year records
West Ham United
2009/10 Premier League 17th (35 points)
2008/09 Premier League 9th (51 points)
2007/08 Premier League 10th (49 points)
2006/07 Premier League 15th (41 points)
2005/06 Premier League 9th (55 points)
2004/05 Championship 6th (73 points - promoted to Premier League via play-offs)
2003/04 Championship 4th (74 points)
2002/03 Premier League 18th (42 points - relegated to Championship)
2001/02 Premier League 7th (53 points)
2000/01 Premier League 15th (42 points)
Manchester City
2009/10 Premier League 5th (67 points)
2008/09 Premier League 10th (50 points)
2007/08 Premier League 9th (55 points)
2006/07 Premier League 14th (42 points)
2005/06 Premier League 15th (43 points)
2004/05 Premier League 8th (52 points)
2003/04 Premier League 16th (41 points)
2002/03 Premier League 9th (51 points)
2001/02 Championship 1st (99 points - promoted to Premier League)
2000/01 Premier League 18th (34 points - relegated to Championship)
Referee
• The match referee will be Phil Dowd, who began refereeing in 1984. He was promoted to the Barclays Premier League list of referees in 2001. This is his tenth season as a top-flight referee.
• He was the fourth official at the 2006 FA Cup final between West Ham United and Liverpool at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium.
He has not taken charge of a Hammers match this season, having been the man in the middle for City's 3-0 home defeat of Liverpool on 23 August and the 3-2 win at Blackpool on 17 October.
Team news
West Ham United
• Manager Avram Grant is definitely without Thomas Hitzlsperger (thigh) and Jack Collison (knee). Collison is hoping to return early in the New Year, Hitzlsperger has a provisional February comeback date, having had surgery on his torn muscle.
• Manuel da Costa has had surgery a month ago on an ankle injury and is likely to be missing for up to another two months as a result of the problem, which followed a late Cesc Fabregas tackle away to Arsenal.
• Mark Noble has been ruled out for the rest of the year with a hip injury suffered in the last minute at Anfield. Valon Behrami may also be missing with a hip injury.
• All other members of the squad have been in training, including fit-again winger Anthony Edgar, although Lars Jacobsen has been struggling with a heel problem that saw him miss out at Sunderland.
• Freddie Sears's loan spell at Championship side Scunthorpe United until 3 January 2011 while Matthew Fry remains at League One high-fliers Charlton Athletic on a temporary basis.
Manchester City
• City are without the suspended captain Carlos Tevez and left-back Aleksandar Kolarov. Tevez has received five yellow cards, while Kolarov was sent-off in last weekend's 1-0 home win over Bolton Wanderers
• Emmanuel Adebayor may return after a groin injury.
• Michael Johnson remains a long-term absentee with a knee problem.
Background
West Ham United
• Robert Green is the only Hammers player to have started every one of the 16 league games this season, although Frederic Piquionne has featured in all of those matches either as a starter or off the bench.
• West Ham have yet to score in the first ten minutes of a Barclays Premier League game this season - the quickest strike being Carlton Cole's 12th-minute goal against Newcastle United.
• Danny Gabbidon has the quickest card in the division this season, earning a caution just 85 seconds into the Fulham home game.
• Scott Parker made his 100th start for the Hammers at Sunderland. Danny Gabbidon also made it a century of appearances in claret and blue at the Stadium of Light.
• No goalkeeper in the top-flight has made more saves than Robert Green (98).
• West Ham have been caught offside 55 times this campaign, more than any other Barclays Premier League outfit.
• Scott Parker, Mark Noble and Luis Boa Morte are all one caution away from a fifth yellow card and an automatic one-match ban. They will avoid this if they are not booked in either the match against City, the trip to Fulham on Boxing Day or the Everton visit on 28 December, with the threshold pushed back to ten cautions leading to a two-game suspension in the New Year.
Manchester City
• Joe Hart and Vincent Kompany have both started everyone of City's 16 matches this season, although Gareth Barry has featured in all of them as well.
• Man City keeper Joe Hart has kept eight clean sheets in the Barclays Premier League this season, only Petr Cech of Chelsea can match him. Carlos Tevez, suspended on Saturday, has ten goals - one behind league leader Didier Drogba.
• Nigel de Jong is one yellow card away from an automatic one-match ban for five cautions.
Old boys
• 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, is suspended. He joined the blue half of the city for an undisclosed fee in June 2009.
• Tal Ben Haim played nine times for City in the 2008/09 season after a £5m move from Chelsea.
• Other famous faces to have played for both clubs are Craig Bellamy - on loan at Cardiff City - Ian Bishop, James Cumming, Justin Fashanu, Kevin Horlock, David James, Patrick Leonard, Steve Lomas, Trevor Morley, John Payne, Stuart Pearce, Trevor Sinclair, Paulo Wanchope and Mark Ward.
Next up
• The Hammers head to Blackburn Rovers on Saturday 18 December while Manchester City head to Turin to take on Juventus in their final UEFA Europa League Group A fixture on Thursday 16 December.
General information
• For ticket information, click here.
• Saturday afternoon's forecast in east London is for a chilly day, with temperatures peaking around the 8C mark.