When West Ham United meet Manchester City in the semi final of the Asia Trophy on Wednesday evening, the Hammers are likely to begin with a distinct advantage.
And that's because a series of administrative errors have led to the reigning Premier League champions twice being sent home from the airport having had their flight to Beijing cancelled!City's travelling party on Saturday after being informed their flight was cancelled [Pic: Eamonn and James Clarke]
Pep Guardiola and his squad were initially due to fly to China ahead of the clash with West Ham on Saturday, only for that particular Aeronexus flight to be cancelled due to an unnamed problem involving some of the club's backroom staff.
Having blamed an "unforeseen administrative issue", City's flight was pushed back 24 hours to Sunday. However the issue that led to the previous flight being postponed remained unresolved, leading to the squad being sent home for a second time.
However it was a case of third time lucky for the Citizens who finally made their departure from Manchester on Monday morning, little more than 48 hours ahead of Wednesday's semi final with West Ham - a match that will be broadcast live by Sky Sports.
"Due to an administrative error with third parties, Manchester City’s flight with Aeronexus was delayed by two days," a spokesman for Thomas Cook, who were arranging the flight, told the Press Association.
"We have resolved this issue and the team are due to depart on Monday at 11am."
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Meanwhile West Ham captain Mark Noble says that he and the rest of Manuel Pellegrini's 23-man squad are looking forward to the game, having landed in Shanghai early on Sunday morning.
"We knew it was going to be a long journey, of course, but to be here now in a beautiful place is great and we’re looking forward to the game on Wednesday," he told whufc.com.
"We know how big the Premier League in China and it has wonderful support, so to come and see it first-hand is pretty special.
"We had only been here ten minutes and we’d met loads of fans, so I hope we get a good turnout on Wednesday and for our other game in Shanghai and we can put on a show for those fans.
"It’s only our second game of pre-season, so we’re still not fit and we need to get some minutes under our belts. Playing against the [Premier League] champions will help because they are really good – they always are!"
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