West Ham United vs Manchester City 10/08/19

10 August 2019

Manchester City travel to the Olympic Stadium to take on West Ham United in their 2019-20 Premier League opener.

The hosts’ extensive pre-season preparations have seen them play out six summer friendlies, registering partial success (W3, D1, L2). Notably, both of West Ham’s defeats during the off-season have come against English sides, with one of them seeing the Irons suffer a 4-1 loss precisely to Manchester City. Interestingly, four of the Hammer’s six pre-season matches have produced over 3.5 goals and seen both teams score, with the remaining two ending with the same 1-0 scoreline (W1, L1). West Ham will now be eager to bring a frustrating five-game losing home run to City, with all of those clashes seeing Manuel Pellegrini’s men concede three or more goals, while net just one across all five.

Meanwhile, the visitors have already wrapped up one trophy this term after edging past Liverpool in the Community Shield. Apart from a shock penalty-shootout loss to Wolverhampton, the Citizens have enjoyed an utterly successful pre-season campaign, securing three wins in as many friendlies. All of those matches have seen the reigning PL holders score over 2.5 match goals and restrict their rivals to precisely one goal per game. Pep Guardiola’s men boasted the joint-best PL away record last season, having collected 44 points away from home while netting an average of 2 goals per match. Moreover, no team has conceded fewer away league goals than City (11) last term, with the Citizens keeping 11 clean sheets in 19 league games on the road.