Manchester City v West Ham United

Leon Osman

Former Everton midfielder on BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra

I think Manchester City as a club will be delighted to start playing football again. The comments in the last few days in the press have all been about what’s going on off the field and every club wants to be out there playing and get the talking done on the field.

Certainly to have gone into the period on the back of two defeats, they will be desperate to send a team out there to talk positively about Man City again.

Simon Stone

BBC Sport at the Etihad Stadium

I spoke to a few Manchester City fans outside the stadium just over an hour ago.

It is fair to say they didn’t rate Uefa very highly.

I can imagine what the reception is going to be like when the Champions League anthem is played before the Real Madrid game next month.

Chris Bevan

BBC Sport at Etihad Stadium

The Etihad is slowly filling up as kick-off approaches. After a foul day in Manchester, it has finally stopped raining too.

There will be plenty of attention on the City fans tonight and their reaction to their team’s European ban but, as well as proclaiming their love for Pablo Zabaleta, and (probably) their very different feelings about Uefa, they will make themselves heard when they hold a minute’s applause in the 44th minute of the game in memory of a long-term City supporter who passed away earlier this month.

Juan ‘Jukes’ Guy, 44, was a season-ticket holder from Port Erin in the Isle of Man, who was well known on the island for his passionate support of City.

It is tipping it down in Manchester, add to that some traffic problems around the city and the prospect of a cold midweek match against struggling opposition and the crowd may not be the biggest tonight at the Etihad.

West Ham boss David Moyes, speaking to Sky Sports: “It doesn’t come much bigger than Manchester City and Liverpool away. You play teams twice in the season, unfortunately we have these games back to back.”

Why is Jarrod Bowen not starting? “It is only from my experience of boys I have bought from the Championship but it takes them a little while to settle. There is a clamour for them to start but they need time to settle.

“From what I have seen of him I have been impressed.”

SMS Message: Anderson, Lanzini and Haller are all lazy players who are completely uninterested at the moment. That’s why they’ve been dropped. from Kieran

Anderson, Lanzini and Haller are all lazy players who are completely uninterested at the moment. That’s why they’ve been dropped.

Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola is asked by Sky Sports about the European football ban: “After the game we will talk whatever you want. Now focus on what we have to do. We just try to play our games.

“The first moment was impact but after a few hours we cannot control, we support the club 100%.

“They [the players] are exceptional professionals. I don’t know [about the fans’ reaction]. Hopefully they can help us from here until the end of the season. We have to play for the people here.”

“After 10-12 days without games everyone is ready and fit. We are professionals we want to play games. We had the break and it was good. Few days off with our families and back to business.”

Chris Bevan

BBC Sport at Etihad Stadium

In the summer of 2008, back in the days when the only acronym most Manchester City fans cared about was SWP*, not FFP, an unheralded Argentinian utility man arrived at the club from Spanish side Espanyol.

His name? Pablo Zabaleta. He initially struggled to hold down a regular position in the team but became a hero among City fans, winning six trophies in nine seasons before joining West Ham in 2017.

The 35-year-old right-back says this is his last season in English football so this is likely to be his last visit as a player to Etihad Stadium. He starts the game on the bench.

I reckon the City fans might be quite vocal about a number of issues tonight, but they are sure to sing Zabaleta’s song at some point – and don’t be surprised if he takes his shirt off again at the final whistle, and gives them another fist-pump.

* Shaun Wright-Phillips

Former Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger, who is now Fifa’s chief of global football development, is pressing for a change to the offside law.

He wants a player to be onside if any part of their body that can score a goal is behind or level with a defender.

“I’m speaking about the offside by a margin of a fraction of a centimetres,” said Wenger. “Maybe there is room to change the offside rule a little bit so we don’t say a part of his nose was offside.”

What do you think of Wenger’s musings? Let us know via #bbcfootball

SMS Message: Moyes must be resting his better players for the Liverpool match!! What is he thinking with this dull selection? This is a minimum 4-0 to City. from Andy K

Moyes must be resting his better players for the Liverpool match!! What is he thinking with this dull selection? This is a minimum 4-0 to City.

Mark Lawrenson

Ex-Liverpool defender on BBC Radio 5 Live

The one thing Hammers boss David Moyes will have been working on is defensively, because they were woeful at the back last time out in their draw with Brighton.

Even so, I don’t think West Ham will have enough about them to take even a point away from City.

Prediction: 3-0

West Ham’s position may be precarious but David Moyes is confident that his players have enough about them to soon start pulling away from danger.

“I’ve been really pleased with the application of the players since I came in,” he said. “What we need to improve on is the quality, our results, our performances – and more importantly than anything, we have to win.

“I’m more than confident we will climb the table. I think the players here are more than capable. I think they are all fully aware of the situation we’re in and the improvement we need to make to make sure we’re not in the bottom three, and I’m sure come the end we will do.”

Manchester City’s chief executive Ferran Soriano says “serious breaches” of Uefa’s club licensing and financial fair play regulations are “simply not true”.

City were handed a two-year Champions League ban and fined 30m euros (£25m). The decision is subject to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

“The fans can be sure of two things. The first one is that the allegations are false,” said Soriano. “And the second is that we will do everything that can be done to prove so.”

Read more here.

Mike Dean: cult figure, evergreen Premier League staple and referee.

That Peter Crouch Podcast returns to BBC Sounds this week and, on the first episode of the series, they’ve got guest Mike Dean – the Premier League’s veteran, maverick, Mr Hollywood referee.

Listen here.