West Ham have been without both of their key creative fulcrums for the start of the season and, further shorn of captain Mark Noble, thoroughly lacked incision and guile as they lost 1-0 to Astra Giurgiu, ending their participation in the Europa League.
Advertisement
Guy Mowbray: “To misquote Monty Python – what have the Romanians ever done for us?”
“Well, Steaua Bucharest have given Manchester City two nice easy training games to hone their playing style under Pep Guardiola”.
“What gives us hope is how Sunderland and Stoke made it hard for them”. Slaven Bilic was right to be “angry and frustrated”.
“He’s fit but he’s not going to play this weekend”, said Guardiola of Bravo. “I don’t know what is going on, if it is happening more often, more times than it did”.
“But we have to pick ourselves up and show character and quality”.
Speaking at his pre-match media conference, manager Bilic – whose side were denied a spot in the Europa League by Astra – said: “It wasn’t very likely for us to win there previous year as Man City had started great with five wins, 15 points and no goals conceded”.
I fancy City to win this one.
West Ham will be hoping to bounce back from being knocked out of Europe on Thursday with a positive result here, but the fans will be bracing themselves for a disappointing week as they take on arguably the strongest squad in the league.
Read Lawro’s full predictions v four-time Olympic cycling champion Laura Trott.
Andre Ayew of West Ham sits on the pitch with an injury during the Premier League match between Chelsea and West Ham United at Stamford Bridge on August 15, 2016 in London, England.
The first segment of the season has gone nearly perfectly for Pep Guardiola, and Manchester City have the chance to make it flawless ahead of the global break if they can defeat West Ham United on Sunday at the Etihad Stadium.
“Man City were Man City past year and we can do it again”.
Advertisement
Sergio Aguero has 19 goals in his last 18 league games. He has an eye for goal against West Ham with six in eight league appearances.
