Wednesday evening’s game at the Etihad Stadium sees second from top in the Premier League face second from bottom, as Manchester City host West Ham in the first leg of their Capital One Cup semi-final.

City were surprisingly held to a 1-1 draw by Championship side Blackburn Rovers in the third round of the FA Cup on Saturday – one of only three of the last seventeen games where they have not emerged victorious.

Incidentally, the only defeat in that impressive run came in the league to Sunderland, who drew first blood against Manchester United in their semi-final tie at the Stadium of Light yesterday evening.

Jesus Navas has been ruled out with a knee injury, while Sergio Aguero and Micah Richards are also unavailable despite both recently returning to training.

Alvaro Negredo is favourite to open the scoring at a price of 4.0 (3/1) with a variety of bookmakers, with Edin Dzeko a 5.0 (4/1) shot with Ladbrokes.

Manuel Pellegrini’s men are firm favourites to win the game with Paddy Power offering the best price of 1.18 (2/9), while West Ham can be easily found at 19.0 (18/1). The draw is widely available at 9.0 (8/1).

The Hammers were quite literally hammered last time out after suffering a 5-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest in the FA Cup to add to the Premier League woes.

One league win in their last thirteen games has seen Sam Allardyce’s men slip to nineteenth place, just a point above bottom of the table Sunderland.

Changes are expected from the youthful side that lost at the City Ground four days ago, though captain Kevin Nolan remains suspended and Andy Carroll and Winston Reid are not quite ready to return from their respective injuries.

Roger Johnson, who earlier this week signed on loan for the rest of the season, is set to go straight into the match-day squad.

Carlton Cole and Ricardo Vaz Te are each available at 17.0 (16/1) to open the scoring with Ladbrokes for the goal-shy East London outfit.

With such a contrast between the two sides’ form, you will be forgiven for thinking that tonight’s match is merely a matter of how many Manchester City will score.

With this in mind, you may want to take advantage of Coral’s offer of 2.5 (6/4) that the home side will notch up four of more for what would be the ninth time in front of their own fans so far this season.