Face Manchester City at home and you’ll get Dr Jeykll. Play Manuel Pellegrini’s troops at your home ground and on this season’s evidence Mr Hyde will walk through the turnstile.
It’s for this reason that West Ham United manager Sam Allardyce is hopeful ahead of his side’s Saturday tea-time kick-off against 2012 English champions City.
After seven games the Premier League title candidates lie fifth, three points behind leaders Arsenal, though owing to surprise away losses at Cardiff and Aston Villa Allardyce has reason to believe the Londoners can further derail City’s top-spot ambitions.
“I think that in terms of results they’ve been a bit Jekyll and Hyde, fantastic at home and not won away. From our point of view we’ve got to look forward and be encouraged by their results,” Allardyce, who described his team’s 0-0 home draw against City last year as ‘fantastic’, told the club’s website.
“I’ve always said that if you play your best against Manchester City sometimes it’s not enough but as long as we do our best and we catch Manchester City on a relatively off day we can get a result.”
The Hammers stunned Tottenham Hotspur 3-0 away in their last top-flight outing and Allardyce, who joked last year that if he was called Allardici he would get a job at a top-four club, said confidence was sky high in his camp.
“We upset the odds two weeks ago so let’s hope we can do it again on Saturday.”
City have failed to win twice on the bounce so far this season in the league and further dropped points away from home at Stoke City underline how much work Pellegrini faces to impress in his first season.
The Chilean manager’s defence is again short of experience due to injuries though captain Vincent Kompany could feature after recovering more quickly than expected from a thigh problem and Argentina’s Martin Demichelis may make his long-awaited debut.
The summer signing from Atletico Madrid, 32, is yet to feature for the Blues but has put himself in contention after playing for the Elite Development Squad on Wednesday.
“It was important to play and get the confidence back. My knee responded very well and I’m very happy after working very hard to get here,” he said.
“It was difficult at the beginning with the injury but that allowed me to meet everybody at the club and feel confident and comfortable with everybody so it’s fantastic now.
“I’m looking forward to my debut.”
Midfielder Jack Rodwell has declared himself available having also come through 90 minutes in the EDS game against Rochdale.
Image courtesy of MCFC via YouTube, with thanks.
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