Top of the league Manchester City has said goodbye to Nick Cushing as they continue chasing the title. Meanwhile, Matt Beard and West Ham United look to keep a safe distance from the relegation zone. The two sides meet on Sunday, February 9, at 9 a.m. ET at the legendary Rush Green Stadium.
Spearheading the FA Women's Super League, Man City has one goal in mind, win every league game until the end of the season. Why? Because Chelsea has a game in hand and is only a point behind with a better goal differential. In other words, temporary manager, Alan Mahon, will have to win every game left of the season – including one against Chelsea – if they really want to win the league given Chelsea's form.
West Ham finds itself at the bottom half of the table with 13 points, seven points away from the relegation zone. Although this might not seem bad for a team, the Hammers hoped for a better season and are looking to edge closer to the upper half of the leaderboard. The possibilities of a top-half finish are there. Manchester United sits at fourth with 19 points, only six points ahead of West Ham. Six points from their next five matches – against Man City, Reading, Liverpool, Man United and Arsenal – would be incredible and help them complete their goal. But as it stands, West Ham has a poor .333 win percentage winning only four of its 12 matches.
West Ham vs Manchester City: head-to-head
As you expected, this has been a one-way fixture in all four matches that these two sides have met. Manchester City has won all four winning their first-ever meeting in October 2018 by the largest margin, 7-1. Their closest game was the reverse fixture in that 2018 season at Rush Green Stadium, which ended 3-1. Ever since that second match, the Citizens have kept clean sheets and outscored the Hammers 8-0.
West Ham is eager to overcome its 5-0 away loss to Manchester City earlier in the season.
West Ham vs Manchester City: players to watch
Alisha Lehmann – West Ham
The Swiss forward will be West Ham's player to watch. Lehmann assisted one of the only two goals that the Hammers have dealt to the Citizens in January 2019. Well, it's a year later and she has been on solid form. She secured a victory over Brighton and Hove Albion on January 19 scoring two goals in the last 10 minutes of the match. If there is someone in this team who can make something special happen it is Lehmann.
Pauline Bremmer – Manchester City
Scoring five goals in her last four FA WSL matches, Pauline Bremmer will be the most dangerous Citizen on the pitch on Sunday. In Man City's farewell game for Cushing against Arsenal, Bremmer converted one her team's only two shots on target. The other shot on target was converted by Lauren Hemp. Nevertheless, the German striker is still chasing the golden boot and a West Ham side that just suffered an 8-0 loss to Chelsea could be the perfect prey.
