Repeated goals on both sides?

West Ham kick off the new season against champions Manchester City! The home side would certainly have wished for a different opponent for their opener.

The home side have played the Citizens three times in their opening game in the country’s top division and have always lost! As if that wasn’t bad enough from the capital’s point of view, the defeats have also always been accompanied by a clean sheet for the visitors!

For the upcoming clash at London’s Olympic Stadium between West Ham and Manchester City, however, betting on a two-sided goal celebration this time around seems fruitful.

West Ham – Statistics & current form

The Irons don’t like playing against reigning Premier League champions. This has been the case 55 times and the Londoners have not won more than five matches.

Coach David Moyes also looks back on a mixed preparation: In the final four test matches, no victory was recorded, although they also played against lower-class teams such as Reading or Luton Town. In terms of personnel, the manager can also fall back on a team that has once again been completely renewed. The home side spent around 90 million euros on new players during the summer break.

Scamacca is now expected to do the job in attack

One of the particularly costly additions is Gianluca Scamacca. The striker previously played for Sassuolo in the Italian Serie A and did so with great success: he scored 16 goals last season – only five players in the Italian top flight topped that tally.

The defence has also been strengthened with the arrival of Nayef Aguerd, who was very efficient at Rennes last season and is looking to make the next step up.

However, the hosts cannot count on a pronounced home strength: Last season, the Hammers finished only eighth in home rankings and more than half of their 19 games did not end in victory for the three-time FA Cup winners (9-5-5).

Goals have not been in short supply in West Ham home games recently

However, the home games were comparatively high-scoring: 3.1 goals were scored on average – only in the home games of Watford and the upcoming opponents were more goals scored.

In view of this and the fact that the champions are travelling with a once very strong attack, the odds on more than 2.5 goals in the match between West Ham and Manchester City are also interesting. A limit that was always exceeded in the two duels last season.

Predicted line-up of West Ham:
Fabianski – Aguerd – Bowen – Coufal – Dawson – Fornals – Johnson – Soucek – Benrahma – Vlasic – Scamacca

Last matches played by West Ham:

Friendly club matches
30/07/2022 – Lens 0 – 0 West Ham

23/07/2022 – Luton 1 – 1 West Ham

20/07/2022 – Rangers 3 – 1 West Ham

16/07/2022 – Reading 1 – 1 West Ham

13/07/2022 – Ipswich 1 – 2 West Ham

Manchester City – Statistics & current form

The Citizens will not want to start this season with another defeat. Last season, coach Pep Guardiola’s team also had to play in London on the first matchday and conceded a 0:1 defeat at Spurs.

However, it remained the only defeat away from home during the rest of the season, which is why the champions can still be described as very strong away from home. Manchester also won 14 of their next 18 away games!

Laporte is out for the time being

Just before the start of the new season, the champions were hit by bad news in terms of personnel. Aymeric Laporte, a powerful defensive player, was injured. The Frenchman will be absent for some time, which is why Spanish coach Guardiola will have to make long-term changes to his defence.

However, Jack Grealish is particularly looking forward to the upcoming opponent. In his six duels with West Ham so far, the midfielder has been involved in five goals (three goals & two assists). Against Liverpool alone, the ex-Aston Villa player has as many direct goals.

Of course, Erling Haaland will also be in the spotlight on his league debut. The Norwegian was the champions’ king transfer in the summer and now wants to prove that he can also hold his own in the Premier League after his very successful time at BVB. Given his unquestionably high level of motivation, betting on him to score in the clash between West Ham and Manchester City is also worth considering.

Should he score, he would become the third Norwegian in Premier League history to score on his first matchday debut. Previously, only goals by Andre Flo and Adama Diomande had achieved this.

Haaland like to score on season opener

Haaland’s goals at the start of the season were also the norm, at least in his previous spell at Dortmund: in each of the last two seasons, he scored two goals for the black-and-yellow team.

In addition, the game closes a family circle for the Haalands. Erling’s father, Alf Inge, played for Manchester City between 1994 and 2001 and his last match was against West Ham!

Predicted line-up of Manchester City:
Ederson – Walker – Dias – Ake – Cancelo – Silva – Rodri – de Bruyne – Mahrez – Haaland – Grealish

Last matches played by Manchester City:

Community Shield
30/07/2022 – Liverpool FC 3 – 1 Manchester City

Club Friendlies
24/07/2022 – Bayern Munich 0 – 1 Manchester City

21/07/2022 – Manchester City 2 – 1 CF America

Premier League
22/05/2022 – Manchester City 3 – 2 Aston Villa

15/05/2022 – West Ham 2 – 2 Manchester City

West Ham – Manchester City Direct Comparison / H2H Record

The 1965 European Cup Winners’ Cup winners drew 2-2 with the champions in front of their home crowd in their last head-to-head encounter last May. That first-leg match again ended in a 2-1 home win for the Citizens. The hosts have also been waiting since 2014 for their next league win against their upcoming opponents on home soil (0-3-4).

West Ham – Manchester City Tip

Although the home side’s preparation has been bumpy in terms of results, a strong home team can still be expected. The two most important newcomers Aguerd in the defence and Scamacca in the attack were not used at all or only briefly and the Londoners will also be very motivated for the start of the new season in front of their own fans.

The forecast for the match between West Ham and Manchester City therefore includes goals on both sides. There is hardly any need to say anything about the offensive strength of the visitors with their noble newcomer Haaland, but the defence is weakened by the recent injury to Laporte.

Furthermore, goals on both sides have been the norm in this pairing in the recent past: Thus, the last four duels have already ended with this course of play.