Talking Points ahead of Manchester City vs West Ham

This weekend will see a rematch of the fourth round of the Carabao Cup, as Manchester

City hosts West Ham United.

Both sides will be coming into the match hot off of wins in European competition. For

Manchester City, it was a 2-1 victory against Paris Saint Germain which helped them secure first place in group A of the Champions League.

While West Ham secured their spot in the last 16 of the Europa League by keeping a clean sheet against the Austrian side Rapid Wien.

Domestically, both sides have been keeping top form with the Blues three points from sharing top of the league with Chelsea, while West Ham have kicked off the season on a hot streak, landing them three points clear of fifth place Arsenal.

The last time the two clubs met was in late October in the Carabao Cup, where West Ham came out on top after a 5-3 penalty shoot-out. Prior to the shoot-out, the game was in Manchester City’s favor, the Blues had 65% possession, 25 shots and seven of which were on target.

Similarly to their prior meeting, Manchester City will be without Belgian national Kevin De Bruyne this weekend as he continues to remain in health and safety protocol.

However there is good news for the Blues, as during his pre-match conference, Pep Guardiola stated that Phil Foden was training individually, but that he is “much better”. It’s not a guarantee that Foden will be on the starting XI or the reserves against West Ham, Foden missed City’s Champions League match against Paris Saint Germain as he was recovering from a “knock” he took against Everton.

City winger Jack Grealish may also remain out for the match as Guardiola didn’t go far into a progress report about his recovery, Grealish’s last fixture for the Blues was their 4-1 victory in the Champions League against the Belgian side Club Brugge.

The only notable absence in West Ham’s line up will be defender Angelo Ogbonna who suffered a likely season-ending ACL injury in their 3-2 victory against Liverpool.

Kick-off is set for 14:00 BST or 9:00 A.M. EST on Nov. 28 at the Etihad Stadium in Manchester.