Skoorb
Alert Team
City travel to the London Stadium (nah, not my favourite name either) to take on West Ham this evening in the FA Cup in Pep Guardiola's first taste of this historic competition. In his press conference Pep seemed well aware of the nature of the competition and the opportunity it can present to pitch a small club against those from the top devisions and he appeared disappointed that he wouldn't be experiencing that feeling in his first FA Cup fixture. City's fans will be less enamoured of the thought of yet another evening kick off away from home and in this case, thanks to the BBC, one which delivers them to east London on a Friday evening with the game finishing at nearly 10pm! Had it been the rags drawn in this fixture clearly they could have most of their fans tucked up back in their beds within an hour of the final whistle :066:
City will be missing long term absentee Ilkay Gundogan as well as the mythical Fabian Delph. Vincent Kompany has resumed training again but won't feature tonight and Leroy Sané is also absent with a muscle injury. Fernandinho misses out as he is commencing his second period of suspension following his dismissal for a rash challenge against Burnley. The BBC are reporting that Fernando may be a doubt due to a knock but no other details are available at this time.
West Ham however will be able to field Sofiane Feghouli after his red card against the rags was over turned on appeal. Smal comfort to the Hammers given that Mike Dean's poor decision - aided I have no doubt by Phil Jones's theatrical rolling around - handicapped them severely during the game. Mark Noble may well return and defender John Collins may face a late fitness test. Winston Reid appears to have suffered no long term damage after Sergio 'The Brute' Aguero's attempted decapitation in the league fixture at the Etihad cost him the first of his three game suspensions so the Argentinian might expect to suffer the same level of grappling, shirt pulling and general foul play which seems to be permitted against Pep's players by the officials.
I seriously hope that tonight's referee Michael Oliver doesn't have any controversial decisions to make.
I would expect Andy Carroll to feature at some stage for the Hammers given his aerial threat - Bilic will have noted how Bravo was unable to deal with the leading arm of Sam Vokes in the Burnley game as he was fouled and prevented from reaching the cross which ultimately resulted in the goal after the rest of City's outfield players failed to clear the resulting loose ball. However there is every chance that City's League Cup penalty saving hero, Willy Caballero, may get the chance to get his gloves dirty this evening and so he may be less easily bullied. Pep tended to play string sides in the cup competitions when managing Bayern Munich and so he may well wish to consolidate Monday's hard fought victory by fielding an experienced side. Mind you after shipping out youngsters Maffeo and Angelino on loan recently, the options for 'playing the youngsters' have narrowed somewhat.
Some match facts: -
:026: West Ham have won only two of their last 15 league and cup games against Manchester City (D3, L10).
:027: The Hammers have only lost one of their previous eight FA Cup games on home turf - that defeat coming against Manchester United last season.
:027: The last time they lost a game at home in the FA Cup third round was in 2010 - a 2-1 defeat by Arsenal.
:050: City won the trophy for the fifth time when they beat Stoke in 2011. They have been runners-up on five occasions (not bad for a club with no 'history')
:021: Sergio Aguero needs one goal to become the third highest scorer in City's history. He is tied with Colin Bell on 153 goals. Only Tommy Johnson (166) and Eric Brook (178) have more.
:001: Kelechi Iheanacho has four goals and one assist in his three previous FA Cup appearances.
I will be interested to see how the BBC reports on Guardiola's demeanour - perhaps they will have a body language expert in the studio to comment on every nuance, to reflect on what it means each time he scratches his nose or maybe a linguistic expert to dissect every sentence and assign meaning to each phrase? Just as longa s Robbie the Hairdo Savage isn't anywhere near a microphone - that will be the first result of the evening :029: :074:
Are we Up For The Cup? I hope so. :043: :030: :050:
Come On City!!!
City will be missing long term absentee Ilkay Gundogan as well as the mythical Fabian Delph. Vincent Kompany has resumed training again but won't feature tonight and Leroy Sané is also absent with a muscle injury. Fernandinho misses out as he is commencing his second period of suspension following his dismissal for a rash challenge against Burnley. The BBC are reporting that Fernando may be a doubt due to a knock but no other details are available at this time.
West Ham however will be able to field Sofiane Feghouli after his red card against the rags was over turned on appeal. Smal comfort to the Hammers given that Mike Dean's poor decision - aided I have no doubt by Phil Jones's theatrical rolling around - handicapped them severely during the game. Mark Noble may well return and defender John Collins may face a late fitness test. Winston Reid appears to have suffered no long term damage after Sergio 'The Brute' Aguero's attempted decapitation in the league fixture at the Etihad cost him the first of his three game suspensions so the Argentinian might expect to suffer the same level of grappling, shirt pulling and general foul play which seems to be permitted against Pep's players by the officials.
I seriously hope that tonight's referee Michael Oliver doesn't have any controversial decisions to make.
I would expect Andy Carroll to feature at some stage for the Hammers given his aerial threat - Bilic will have noted how Bravo was unable to deal with the leading arm of Sam Vokes in the Burnley game as he was fouled and prevented from reaching the cross which ultimately resulted in the goal after the rest of City's outfield players failed to clear the resulting loose ball. However there is every chance that City's League Cup penalty saving hero, Willy Caballero, may get the chance to get his gloves dirty this evening and so he may be less easily bullied. Pep tended to play string sides in the cup competitions when managing Bayern Munich and so he may well wish to consolidate Monday's hard fought victory by fielding an experienced side. Mind you after shipping out youngsters Maffeo and Angelino on loan recently, the options for 'playing the youngsters' have narrowed somewhat.
Some match facts: -
:026: West Ham have won only two of their last 15 league and cup games against Manchester City (D3, L10).
:027: The Hammers have only lost one of their previous eight FA Cup games on home turf - that defeat coming against Manchester United last season.
:027: The last time they lost a game at home in the FA Cup third round was in 2010 - a 2-1 defeat by Arsenal.
:050: City won the trophy for the fifth time when they beat Stoke in 2011. They have been runners-up on five occasions (not bad for a club with no 'history')
:021: Sergio Aguero needs one goal to become the third highest scorer in City's history. He is tied with Colin Bell on 153 goals. Only Tommy Johnson (166) and Eric Brook (178) have more.
:001: Kelechi Iheanacho has four goals and one assist in his three previous FA Cup appearances.
I will be interested to see how the BBC reports on Guardiola's demeanour - perhaps they will have a body language expert in the studio to comment on every nuance, to reflect on what it means each time he scratches his nose or maybe a linguistic expert to dissect every sentence and assign meaning to each phrase? Just as longa s Robbie the Hairdo Savage isn't anywhere near a microphone - that will be the first result of the evening :029: :074:
Are we Up For The Cup? I hope so. :043: :030: :050:
Come On City!!!
