Manchester City, the champion of the past two seasons, is looking to restore its balance and stick to the title, when Sunday faces its guest Westham United, in the twenty-sixth stage of the Premier League.
Only 4 matches are held this weekend to allow teams to catch their breath after the league, cup and League Cup matches have been crowded since Christmas and New Year’s period to date.
The opportunity will thus be in front of City to get away from Leicester III, who is waiting until next Friday to play in this phase against its difficult host Wolverhampton.
And the Spanish coach Josep Guardiola’s team enters his meeting with Westham against the backdrop of two consecutive defeats against his neighbor and his guest Manchester United (zero -1) in the League Cup semi-final without preventing him from qualifying to the final to win the first leg 3-1, and his host Tottenham zero -2 in The last stage.
Guardiola lost hope to win the title for the third season in succession, by 22 points behind leaders Liverpool, who are playing in this stage next Saturday, hosted by Norwich City.
Sunday’s match against Westham, who is in eighteenth place after failing to win any victory in the past five stages, wears double importance to City, who is absent from Rahim Sterling because of the injury because he is called to face Lester in the next stage, especially as he is leading by 3 points Just about the last.
In spite of the low morale due to the huge difference with Liverpool, which needs 18 points from the 13 remaining matches for it to clinch its first title since 1990, the “Citizens” will be candidates to confirm their complete supremacy over West Ham in recent years and achieve their ninth victory in succession over the London team in all Competitions.
Guardiola realizes that there is no time to fail or laxity because his team is entering a very important period of the season, as, after his confrontation with Leicester, he is invited to travel to Spain to meet Real Madrid on the 26th of this month in the first leg of the Champions League final price, before hosting Arsenal in The League then ran the League Cup final against Aston Villa on March 1st.
There is still an opportunity for City to win the local cup title, as it faces in the final round hosts Sheffield and Wednesday first-class on the fourth of next month.
The twenty-sixth stage will open, on Saturday, with the matches Everton and Crystal Palace, then Brighton and Watford, to be met on Sunday by Sheffield United and Bournemouth
