MCI Pre-Match Preview: West Ham vs Manchester City

It’s shaping up to be an exciting day on our hands as Manchester City will be looking to end the month of August strong by continuing their winning ways with a match against West Ham at the London Stadium. A win away from home would mean City accelerate into September having been victorious in all of their previous matches. In times past, it seemed as if it would take a few matches for the squad to dust off the cobwebs from the offseason, but this time around City have truly hit the ground running. Could this be a product of retaining a mostly familiar squad to last season? Of course, apart from the return of the former captain and talisman in Gundogan, as well as the addition of Brazilian international, Savinho. While City will be looking to extend their run of blistering form, West Ham will be eager to claw their way into a much needed victory, seeing as they have only managed one out of their last three matches. 
Predicted lineups/analysis:

The line-up is a tricky one to predict for this particular outing. City have a few players who are still returning to fitness, some seeming more likely to touch the pitch than others. Regardless, I think Pep will mostly stick with a familiar line up that has been achieving desired results so far. Here’s how we think things could shape up on the weekend:

After observing a couple of West Ham’s recent matches, I’ve noticed they like to have their central striker move out wide on occasion to make room for Thomas Soucek to make runs into the box from midfield. Kudus is an absolute star and could cause any elite level defense problems with his pace and trickery. Add playmakers like Lucas Paqueta and Jarrod Bowen into that mix and West Ham could potentially create some fires for City defenders to have to extinguish. With the knowledge of that and of Rodri still not quite match fit, I imagine Pep will rely on a double pivot to combat the midfield battle that awaits. Gundogan will be given his first start of the season and likely paired alongside Kovacic, who has had an impressive start to the season thus far. 
With such quality available in our defensive options, Kyle Walker and John Stones haven’t had to rush into the starting line-up so far. Ake is expectedly out due to injury recovery, but it’s hard to see the others making their way back into the defensive ranks this match with the likes of Rico Lewis impressing early in the season and Akanji remaining consistent as ever. I believe Pep will feel confident with the same defensive lineup. 
Another part of the pitch to focus on will be the wings, which could provide the match with an exciting battle of pace and wits. West Ham have often relied on the services of Coufal at the right-back position this season, and if they continue that, I believe he could have an unpleasant time against the pestering Grealish or the electric Savinho. It will be interesting to see if West Ham instead decide to employ their newest signing from the red side of Manchester in Aaron Wan-Bissaka. A solid defensive player, AWB has been deployed on the left and the right so far this season. I imagine they’ll throw him into the mix one way or the other to try to combat the newfound pace we’ve had on the wings as of late. 
Focus Points:

• It is somewhat unsure if Foden will be making his return, but we’ll want the PFA Player of the Year to feature in the squad if possible. He missed out last week due to illness, and as of yet hasn’t been seen consistently training. Could he get a surprise start, or at least some minutes on the pitch?
• There are a handful of players who have had an exciting start to the season, including: Kovacic, Rico Lewis, Savinho and the inevitable Haaland. Will these players be able to continue their momentum with another good performance?
• Minutes for returning internationals and regular starters: John Stones, Kyle Walker, Gundogan, and Grealish. Will they be expected to fight for their starting positions, or will they become more of utility players this season?

Score Predictions:
City and West Ham both enter this match with opposite mentalities, with City looking an unstoppable force at the moment and West Ham desperately seeking form. While I assume we will put up another strong performance against The Hammers, it feels inevitable that they’ll nick a scrappy goal at some point during the match. 3-1 seems like a frequent scoreline between the two clubs, so I’m predicting history will repeat itself with another 3-1 victory to Manchester City. 

5 Fun Facts:

Written by: Rob

Edited by: SHEIKH