Manchester Metropolis kick off their title defence with a troublesome journey to West Ham at London Stadium on Tremendous Sunday.
West Ham might be keen to begin their marketing campaign with victory as they chase a top-six end, while Metropolis will look to begin their title defence with out struggling a gap defeat for the second consecutive season.
Staff Information
West Ham might be with out summer season signing, Nayef Aguerd after he suffered an ankle harm in pre-season.
Issa Diop (knock) is a doubt however Angelo Ogbonna and summer season signing – Gianluca Scamacca are health doubts.
Flynn Downes may very well be in line for his debut after becoming a member of the Hammers final month however Maxwel Cornet is unlikely to characteristic within the squad, having solely signed on Friday night from Burnley.
Man Metropolis have a near-full squad out there for choice as Aymeric Laporte is dominated out after needing knee surgical procedure in the course of the summer season break.
Summer season signings, Erling Haaland and Kalvin Phillips are set for his or her league debuts for Metropolis while Stefan Ortega is prone to be on bench because the substitute goalkeeper.
Julian Alvarez in the meantime is making his Premier League debut, having joined Man Metropolis in January however spent the second half of final season on mortgage at Argentina’s River Plate.
Stat Assault
- West Ham have claimed simply three factors out of a potential 39 factors from their final 13 league conferences in opposition to Man Metropolis relationship again to January 2016 (D3, L10).
- Man Metropolis are unbeaten of their final seven Premier League journeys to West Ham (W4, D3).
- West Ham wish to go unbeaten in 4 residence video games in opposition to Man Metropolis for the primary time since a six sport run between November 1993 – April 2006 in all competitions.
- This might be West Ham’s first season with out midfielder, Mark Noble because the 2003-04 marketing campaign following his retirement at finish of final season.
- Metropolis have received 4 of their 5 opening weekend fixtures the place they entered the brand new season as defending champions (W4, L1), with their solely defeat coming at Tottenham final season.
Prediction
Having introduced in recent reinforcement throughout the pitch this summer season, West Ham actually need to begin their season with a win for sake of momentum in a busy month for the Hammers with an UEFA Europa Convention League play-off tie included.
Man Metropolis in the meantime may of misplaced large gamers in Raheem Sterling and Oleksandr Zinchenko however they’ve changed the pair plus others with high quality signings, with Erling Haaland particularly trying one to look at if he can hit the bottom working together with his tempo and technical capacity.
This conflict additionally marked Metropolis’s final away journey of final season on the penultimate by which they fought again from 2-0 down for an important draw which in the end clinched them the title per week later, so I’m anticipating a troublesome battle throughout the pitch the place new signings might want to instantly elevate their sport.
I’m in two minds as as to whether this might be an open end-to-end battle or a good cagey contest but when Haaland rapidly settles and exhibits his high quality, I fancy Metropolis to have the sting.
Prediction: West Ham 1-2 Manchester Metropolis