Today, West Ham travel to the Etihad to take on an in-form Manchester City side.
In the corresponding fixture last season, the Hammers upset the odds by defeating City 2-1 thanks to goals from Diafra Sakho and Victor Moses.
West Ham will be without both those players for one reason or another, but are also missing a number of key players.
Team News:
Firstly, the positives! West Ham are expected to welcome back Mark Noble to the side after he took the night off against Astra Giurgiu because he was suffering from fatigue.
New signing Edimilson Fernandes is eligible to play after joining from Sion on Thursday. Will likely start on the bench, while Simone Zaza hasn’t been registered in time to play today.
Manuel Lanzini has certainly travelled to Manchester with the first team squad after Slaven Bilic hinted he could feature. It’s unknown what capacity he’ll play in today if he even does feature, but to have him back in the fold it a major plus.
However, it’s unlikely that Dimitri Payet will feature. Struggling with a knock suffered against Chelsea, Payet has been out of action for a couple weeks now but is nearing a first-team return.
Havard Nordtveit is unlikely to feature after picking up an injury against Astra Giurgiu on Thursday and Bilic stated that the Norwegian could miss today’s game. His absence will likely see Pedro Obiang be given a rare Premier League start.
As we know, Andre Ayew, Aaron Cresswell and Andy Carroll are all definitely ruled out, while Sofiane Feghouli is close to a return from a hamstring injury.
There is no timetable for a return for Diafra Sakho and Doneil Henry who are both out with back and knee injuries respectively.
With this in mind, here’s a last look at our predicted West Ham XI and bench for today’s game.
