Vincent Kompany
Aguero and Kompany both deserve to stay at City Getty Images

Manchester City host West Ham United at the Etihad on 19 April as the reigning Champions look to stave off Liverpool in their quest for a top four spot.

Where to Watch Live

Kick-off is set for 1.30pm BST. Live coverage of the game will be on Sky Sports 1 and Sky Sports 1 HD.

Overview

Manchester City have taken a massive fall in the second half of the season and from challenging Chelsea for the title, they find themselves involved in a top four scrap with Liverpool, who are only four points behind in the race.

The Citizens come into the game on the back of a 4-2 thrashing at the hands of arch rivals Manchester United at Old Trafford, in a game where they had started strongly and taken the lead in the opening 10 minutes.

However, they failed to keep up the pressure as United came back strongly to post four past them with Sergio Aguero halving the lead in the dying minutes to save them some face.

The loss comes on the back of failures against Liverpool and Arsenal since the turn of the year, which has put manager Manuel Pellegrini in a very precarious position with regards to his job security.

Meanwhile, West Ham have not been able to sustain their brilliant start to the campaign when they were being talked about in the same breath as the likes of Liverpool and Arsenal to challenge for a top four spot.

However, with two wins out of a possible 13 in 2015, the dream has gone out of the window and has been replaced by indecisiveness over the manager's future at the club.

Allardyce, whose contract expires in the summer, is yet to be offered an extension, which people believe will only be decided after poring over his results till the end of the season.

A win here will be a major push in the arm for the manager through which he can convince the owners that he still has it in him to walk the big league.

What Managers Say

Manuel Pellegrini: "Of course, I would like to stay at Manchester City, I am very happy here. I don't think about my contract now, the most important thing at the moment is making sure we win the next game on Sunday. There is a problem that we have not scored as many goals as last season but this is not because we are not creating chances. We create a lot of chances, that's why we're the top scoring team in the league. We are not having the results we deserve."

Sam Allardyce: "The hardest thing to do in the game of football is to win the title back-to-back. It is hard enough winning it in the first place, but going back-to-back is more difficult. That is what I gained from a lot of the conversations I had with Sir Alex Ferguson over the years regarding motivation of the squad. The hardest part of the job is the season after success. To try to do back-to-back titles in a very difficult league."

Betting Odds (By 888Sport)

  • Manchester City Win: 1/4
  • Draw: 91/17
  • West Ham Win: 11

Team News

Manchester City

Possible XI: Hart; Zabaleta, Mangala, Demichelis, Kolarov; Fernandinho, Toure, Navas, Nasri, Silva, Aguero

West Ham United

Possible XI: Adrian; Jenkinson, Collins, Reid, Creswell; Song, Downing, Kouyate, Noble, Nolan; Cole

Manchester City FC