West Ham United Vs Manchester City Barclays Asia Trophy

Hammers take on Manuel Pellegrini's nemesis Manchester City this lunch time in their first fixture of the Premier League Asian Trophy that is being payed at the strangely named Nanjing Olympic Sports Center Gymnasium (capacity 14,000). City are favourites to be outright winners of the competition that also features Newcastle and Wolves, however the Citizens will feel the footballing gods are against them due to their flight from the UK being delayed TWICE!

Before Hammers fans get their hopes up, it should be remembered what strength in depth City have, and a bit of jet lag isn't going to put them off too much, after all, a first class private plane is hardly an arduous experience when compared with 'steerage' for the proles. The match kicks off at 13:30 Hrs BST , 20:30 Hrs local time and will be shown on Sky, Espn and various other media platforms and streams.

We will have all the team news as soon as it is available for this relatively low key fixture, which will follow the match between manager less Newcastle and Wolves that is scheduled to start at 11:00Hrs BST. While much of the media attention regarding West Ham has been in relation to the Haller/Gomez on off transfers this match is vitally important for several Hammers players who are on the cusp of 'the great Pelle and Huse cull' that has 'stalked' the squad of late.

West Ham United squad: Antonio, Cresswell, Cullen, Diangana, Diop, Felipe Anderson, Fredericks, Chicharito, Fabianski, Johnson, Lanzini, Martin, Noble, Obiang, Ogbonna, Reid, Rice, Roberto, Sanchez, Snodgrass, Wilshere, Yarmolenko, Zabaleta

Considering the size of China, a 15,000 capacity stadium/sports centre doesn't seem a very high profile venue does it? It's not much bigger than Orient's Brisbane Road, at least the final will be played on Saturday 20th of July at the Hongkou Football Stadium, Shanghai which has a maximum capacity of 33.060, not much bigger than that of Reading's Madejski Stadium - Ed