The Premier League is back, with Manchester City travelling to the London Stadium to challenge West Ham United in the first league game of the season. After winning the league for two successive seasons, City are looking for the third league title under Pep Guardiola.
These two teams played against each other in their preseason fixtures. City won the game by four goals to one in China. However, with the arrivals of Sébastien Haller and Pablo Fornals, things could have been different this time around. In this tactical analysis, we will show you the tactical battle between the two teams.
Lineups
For West Ham, Fornals was left on the bench. Haller started as a target man and he could be the perfect replacement for Marko Arnoutovic. With different styles of attacking players like Michail Antonio, Manuel Lanzini and Felipe Anderson, the Hammers could potentially try more types of attacking plays.
Most of the City starting XI started in the Community Shield against Liverpool. Guardiola only made a few changes to that side John Stones replaced Nicolás Otamendi, Riyad Mahrez started instead of birthday boy Bernardo Silva, City’s club-record signing Rodrigo Hernández started as the defensive midfielder, while Sergio Agüero was rested and Gabriel Jesus played.
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