City make seven changes for Hammers clash | OneFootball

Pep Guardiola has made seven changes from the City side that started against Brentford in midweek.

Reverting to the starting XI that beat Crystal Palace last week, the boss recalls Gianluigi Donnarumma, Ruben Dias, Matheus Nunes, Josko Gvardiol, Bernardo, Phil Foden and Erling Haaland.

Oscar Bobb misses out with injury, but James Trafford, Nathan Ake, Savinho, Abdukodir Khusanov, Divin Mukasa and Rico Lewis all move to the bench.

Line-ups

CITY: Donnarumma, Nunes, Dias, Gvardiol, O’Reilly, Nico, Bernardo (C), Reijnders, Foden, Cherki, Haaland

SUBS:  Trafford, Ake, Savinho, Khusanov, Gray, Mukasa, Lewis, Mfuni, Heskey

WEST HAM UNITED:  Areola, Walker-Peters, Todibo, Kilman, Scarles, Magassa, Potts, Fernandes, Summerville, Paqueta, Bowen (C)

SUBS: Hermansen, Igor, Wilson, Mavropanos, Rodriguez, Soucek, Irving, Kante, Mayers

Tactics & possible formation

It looks like a 4-3-3 formation on paper.

That means Donnarumma in goal (of course!), Nunes at right-back and Nico O’Reilly at left-back.

Christmas Together

Dias and Gvardiol resume their central defensive partnership, with Nico the holding midfielder alongside Bernardo and Tijjani Reijnders.

Foden, Rayan Cherki and Haaland make a formidable - and in-form - forward trio.

seven up for blues?

City go into today’s game in red-hot form with six successive wins in all competitions.

Victory over West Ham United would not only be the perfect gift for City fans ahead of Christmas, but for a few short hours, would also see us go top of the Premier League.

Of course, the Hammers are more than capable of causing the Blues problems this afternoon , but if we can repeat the form of the past half-dozen games, it will keep the pressure on leaders Arsenal - and the teams around us.

Hammer time!

Our record against West Ham makes for very pleasant reading.

Unbeaten in more than a decade, we have won 16 and drawn three of the last 19 meetings, home and away,  and the Hammers have lost 15 of their last 16 meetings at the Etihad.

The visiting fans must travel to east Manchester with a fir amount of dread - though City won’t be taking anything for granted.

One caveat, however - West Ham boss Nuno Espirito Santos has a good record against Pep with four victories in his 12 meetings with the Blues’ boss - a better record than the majority of managers can boast.

Stats, facts & milestones

City have won their last five Premier League games against West Ham, scoring at least three goals each time. Only Arsenal against Sunderland (2002 to 2007) and Manchester United against Nottingham Forest (1996 to 2022) have won six in a row against an opponent while scoring 3+ goals each time.

City have lost none of their last 46 Premier League home games against sides starting the day in the relegation zone (W42 D4), since a 2-1 loss to Tottenham in November 2008. They’ve won each of the last 14 by an aggregate score of 43-7.

If West Ham fail to win this match, they are guaranteed to be in the relegation zone at Christmas. It will be the fifth time they’ve been in the bottom three at Christmas in the Premier League, but they’ve avoided relegation on the two previous occasions they weren’t bottom (18th in 2006-07, 19th in 2009-10).

Since the start of April, City have won the most home games (12) and home points (36) in the Premier League, failing to win just once in that sequence, a 2-0 defeat to Spurs. City have won all seven at the Etihad since that loss, last winning more in a row on home soil between January and November 2023 (15 in a row).

West Ham have drawn their last three away Premier League matches, taking the lead in two of those before being pegged back. The Hammers haven’t drawn four in a row on the road since between November and January 2000.

In his managerial career, City’s Pep Guardiola has faced West Ham more often without ever losing than he has any other opponent (20 – W17 D3). However, one of those draws did result in a penalty shootout defeat in the 2021-22 League Cup.

Erling Haaland has scored nine Premier League goals against West Ham, only netting more against Wolves (10). He could be the ninth player to score 10+ against the Hammers, and only the third non Englishman after Mohamed Salah and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink.

City’s Rayan Cherki has assisted five goals in his last four home Premier League appearances despite playing just 223 minutes in those matches. He’s played 282 minutes overall and among players to play 250+ minutes at a stadium in Premier League history, Cherki assisting every 56 minutes at the Etihad is the best ratio.