Man City begin their Premier League title defense against West Ham, who posed plenty of problems for Pep Guardiola last season.
The Hammers very nearly derailed City’s title charge on the penultimate weekend of the campaign, and with Guardiola still trying to figure out how best to integrate mega-money No.9 Erling Haaland, David Moyes’ men might just spy the opportunity for an early upset today.
The Abu Dhabi cash has flowed freely once again this summer, but marquee signing Haaland has taken heavy criticism after squandering a pair of easy opportunities in the Community Shield last weekend. What was truly puzzling about Man City’s performance was Kevin de Bruyne’s apparent reluctance to play the Norwegian through whenever he broke Liverpool’s offside trap, which he did on multiple occasions.
This was supposed to be – and could yet become – the partnership of City fans’ dreams, but early evidence suggests that City’s playmakers may have grown so used to playing without a striker that either they or Haaland is going to have to tweak their game in order to strike up an understanding.
West Ham’s best business of the summer was retaining Declan Rice and Jarrod Bowen, who terrorized City in May. He scored two nearly identical goals by capitalizing on a pair of lapses in concentration in the City backline, and Michail Antonio should have made it three before Guardiola’s men struck back.
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