In a drastic turn of events Manchester City's ambitions have quickly changed from challenging for the title to ensuring a place in the top four of the Barclays Premier League. The Citizens have been miserable as of late having suffered four defeats in their last five matches in all competitions.
However arguably their most humiliating defeat this season came in their last outing when they suffered a 4-2 defeat at the hands of arch rivals Manchester United. As a result the Citizens have dropped to fourth place in the league table and will be cautious of dropping any more points with the likes of Liverpool, Southampton and Tottenham still looking to pounce at City's blip in form.
Goalkeeper Joe Hart has backed under fire manager Manuel Pellegrini and has insisted that the players have let him down in recent games.
"That's a team of winners," Hart told Sky Sports. "When you don't win, it's going to be difficult. We want to win, we've got high standards.
"People have been disappointed in their own performances, we've let the manager down a few times in certain games and we've baffled ourselves a little bit because we feel like we've got the quality to beat anyone and that's not been the case.
"[Pellegrini] has got principles that we work to, that we train to and, like I say, we've let him down a few times in that case."
The Chilean himself has been critical of the performances produced by a few of his players especially Yaya Toure who the former Malaga boss has claimed he is not happy with.
“I don’t think he’s happy with his performance this year – and nor am I. But we must support him and return him to his normal performance,” said Pellegrini.
“Maybe if we play without Yaya when he was at the Africa Cup and we’d won all the games, then he comes back and we start losing, maybe then you think that. Yaya needs support, he’s a very important player and he will have my support till the end of the season.”
West Ham on the other hand have suffered three defeat in their last five games and will be hoping to get back on track by by causing more misery to Pellegrini and City.
The Hammers will be without a number of key players including Diafra Sakho (thigh), James Tomkins (shoulder) and Andy Carroll (knee). The Citizens on the other hand might have to play the remainder of the season without captain Vincent Kompany who has suffered a thigh injury. Gael Clichy (groin), Stevan Jovetic, Wilfried Bony and James Milner have also been ruled out of the match.
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