Manchester City v West Ham – Head to Head

Manchester City will hope to put the misery of the Spurs defeat firmly out if their minds as they welcome relegation threatened West Ham to the Etihad Stadium. Victory for the blues will close the gap slightly on leaders Liverpool, while defeat will push the reds closer to the title.

City have had a decent record at home to the Hammers in recent seasons and on paper, this should be a routine win for the blues. But what do the stats say?

Wednesday’s meeting will be the 56^th time these two teams have met in Manchester, with the blues well out in front on wins, leading 37 to West Ham’s 12 victories on Manchester soil. There have only ever been six draws between these two sides in this fixture, the last coming in January 2008, when the match ended 1-1. You’d have to go back 15 years to find the previous draw, a 0-0 stalemate in February 1994.

City are in a decent run of form at home to West Ham, and from the last 14 home games against the Hammers, the blues have won 12, with West Ham taking all three points on just one occasion – a surprise 2-1 win in September 2015.

There are usually goals – and lots of them – in this fixture. Over those 55 previous games, there have been 178 goals scored, with City bagging 112 and the visitors claiming 66, and over the last 12 wins for City, the blues have scored 30 goals, 32 if you add the 2-1 defeat and a 1-1 draw. By comparison, the Hammers have scored just ten.

City’s biggest defeat will still be fresh in the fan’s memories since it only came in January 2014. Manuel Pellegrini’s side put one foot in the League Cup final by thrashing the Hammers 6-0 at the Etihad Stadium, while the biggest league victory was 4-0 in August 1974.

But City have been on the receiving end of some thrashings themselves by the Hammers. November 1961 and September 1962, West Ham beat the blues 5-3 and 6-1 respectively, then in September 1966, thrashed the blues 4-1 and returned in March 1970 to record a 5-1 win at Maine Road.

The blues have kept 19 clean sheets against the Hammers since they first met at Maine Road in may 1924, while at the other end, City have failed to score on just five occasions.

Despite meeting each other 55 times, Wednesday’s match will be only the third time these two have met in February and the stats for West Ham are not very good. On both occasions, they failed to score against the blues, however City haven’t fared much better – they have only scored one goal in a match that ended 1-0 last season.

How will Wednesday’s match end?