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West Ham United test the reigning Premier League champions Manchester City on 8/10/19 at London Stadium.
West Ham United
West Ham United is one of the eight clubs never to have fallen below the second tier of English Football. They have made the top flight in 61 out of the 93 league seasons. West Ham United boss Manuel Pellegrini got some mixed results in his first season as in charge of the Hammers. The team showed plenty of inconsistency all season long but they are inspired by a strong finish to the 2018-19 term which saw them finish in the upper half of the Premier League table at 10th spot. West Ham United defeated Southampton 3-0 in this venue, won at Tottenham 1-0 and emerged victorious at Watford 4-1.
Here are the West Ham United players as of July 27, 2019:
1 GK Lukasz Fabianski, 2 DF Winston Reid, 3 DF Aaron Cresswell, 4 DF Fabian Balbuena, 5 DF Pablo Zabaleta, 7 FW Andriy Yarmolenko, 8 MF Felipe Anderson, 9 FW Javier Hernandez, 10 MF Manuel Lanzini, 11 MF Robert Snodgrass, 12 FW Jordan Hugill, 13 GK Roberto, 15 MF Carlos Sanchez, 16 MF Mark Noble (captain), 18 MF Pablo Fornals, 19 MF Jack Wilshere, 21 DF Angelo Ogbonna, 22 FW Sebastian Haller, 23 DF Issa Diop, 24 DF Ryan Fredericks, 25 GK David Martin, 26 DF Arthur Masuaku, 30 MF Michail Antonio, 32 FW Xande Silva, 33 MF Josh Cullen, 35 DF Reece Oxford, 37 MF Nathan Holland, 40 FW Oladapo Afolayan, 41 MF Declan Rice, 45 FW Grady Diangana, 50 MF Joe Powell, 53 DF Ben Johnson, 54 MF Conor Coventry
Manchester City
Manchester City is the defending Premier League champions. They have won half of the last six Premier League titles and are coming off back to back EPL title wins. The City has enjoyed plenty of success under Pep Guardiola who replaced Manuel Pellegrini in 2016. Guardiola led Manchester City to the 2017-18 Premier League title. They repeated during the last term and also added wins in the EFL Cup and FA Cup to complete an unprecedented treble of domestic honors. The current Premiers are the heavy soccer betting favorites to beat West Ham United on 8/10/19 at their home field.
These are the players on Manchester City’s most recent roster dated July 16, 2019:
1 GK Claudio Bravo, 2 DF Kyle Walker, 3 DF Danilo, 5 DF John Stones, 7 FW Raheem Sterling, 8 Ilkay Gundogan, 9 FW Gabriel Jesus, 10 FW Sergio Aguero, 11 MF Oleksandr Zinchenko, 12 DF Angelino, 14 DF Aymeric Laporte, 15 DF Eliaquim Mangala, 16 MF Rodri, 17 MF Kevin De Bruyne, 19 MF Leroy Sane, 20 MF Bernardo Silva, 21 MF David Silva, 22 DF Benjamin Mendy, 25 MF Fernandinho, 25 MF Riyad Mahrez, 30 DF Nicolas Otamendi, 31 GK Ederson, 32 GK Daniel Grimshaw, 47 Phil Foden
Who Wins?
Felipe Anderson displayed flashes of brilliance after a £40million transfer from Lazio. After shining at the U21 European Championships, forward Pablo Fornals has been signed from Villareal. Then it was French striker Sebastian Haller who came in from Eintracht Frankfurt via a record-breaking club deal. West Ham United lost Marco Arnautovic to China but despite that, Pellegrini still has plenty of attacking options at his disposal.
Manchester City has won back to back Premier League titles and while some say that they barely won the previous term, I say that it was a testament to this squad’s greatness. Liverpool’s 97 points last season would have won any other season except the last one. Also, Liverpool threatened so many times to grab the lead but Manchester City refused to yield. With Pep Guardiola guiding them on the sidelines, Manchester City has been on a roll.
Losing inspirational captain Vincent Kompany created a void in Manchester City but Guardiola still has David Silva, Sergio Aguero, and Kevin de Bruyne to lead their younger teammates. New addition Rodri from Atletico Madrid can share the midfield work with Fernandinho and the goals should come easy with their talented forwards. Aguero scored 21 goals in the previous term while Raheem Sterling added 17. However, it’s the latter who many are excited about as the England star has become more and more dominant on the field.
The City isn’t the perfect team but they are very talented and cohesive. More importantly, they know what it takes to win. The addition of Rodri only makes this team even better and for sure, the rest of the league has been put on notice. I don’t think this is still a question of who wins the match. I’m picking Manchester City to defeat West Ham United. Prediction: Manchester City
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