STATS: Nastasic’s tackling for Manchester City vs Carroll’s shots for West Ham
Manchester City v West Ham, 12:45
– Manchester City all but condemned themselves to the inevitable relinquishing of their Premier League title after they conceded three goals in the space of 9 second half minutes to fall to a 3-1 defeat at the hands of Tottenham.
– Although City’s efforts to retain the Premier League crown this year have been in vain, Carlos Tevez has still been putting in some gigantic performances. He remains their most dangerous attacking player and will keen to finish the season on a high, having so far compiled an impressive 63.3% shot accuracy rate from 90 attempts and carving out a chance on goal on average once every 24.3 minutes this season.
– Matija Nastasic has rightly been garnering some heavy praise for his composed performances this season, however the 20 year-old still has work to do to ensure his technique complements his obvious talent. He’s only managed to compile a 51.4% tackle success rate from 37 attempted challenges this term, something he will be keen to build upon next season.
– The industry of James Milner is something his coaches can always count upon, however Milner himself may be slightly disappointed in his return for his marauding runs down the flank. Although he has rarely had consistent game time, he has only managed to register 3 assists despite delivering 44 crosses, a squad-high.
– West Ham all but ensured their Premier League survival for next season after goal from Matthew Jarvis and Kevin Nolan helped them secure a 2-0 win at home to Wigan.
– Winston Reid has been one of the major positives for Sam Allardyce’s side this season, the New Zealand international developing into a Premier League defender of real note. He’s made a solid 243 defensive contributions this season, a squad-high, at an average rate of one every 11.9 minutes according to the EA SPORTS Player Performance Index.
– Striker Andy Carroll appears to be finding life at West Ham much easier than he previously had at Liverpool, enabling him to be a much more effective attacking weapon in a side that plays more to his strengths. Despite being troubled by injury problems, Carroll has still managed more efforts on goal than an of his team mates with 58, managing to get a workable shot on target on average once every 53.6 minutes.
– Despite getting on the scoresheet last week, Matthew Jarvis is another who has endured a frustrating season when it comes to the final ball. Of all the players in the league to have registered 5 or less assists, Jarvis has delivered the most crosses (72).