David Moyes looks set to make just one change from the West Ham side which ended last season for the season opener against Man City.
When West Ham kick off in the curtain raiser against Pep Guardiola’s champions Man City today it will be exactly 11 weeks, or 77 days, since the Hammers were getting the 2021-22 season finale at Brighton underway.
That match ended in a 3-1 defeat for West Ham which, on the day at least, cost them sixth spot and a place in the Europa League.
Although it was West Ham’s shallow squad that had really put paid to Moyes’ hopes of qualifying for the competition for the second season in a row, with the Conference League West Ham’s consolation.
Meanwhile Manchester City were busy winning the Premier League title for the fourth time in five seasons at the Etihad having drawn 2-2 at West Ham just a week before.
Man City were the last team West Ham faced at the London Stadium in what proved an emotional and fitting farewell to retiring captain Mark Noble.
Fast forward nearly three months and both West Ham and Man City are going through transitions in terms of their squads.
Guardiola has allowed a host of players to leave with star signings such as Erling Haaland, Kalvin Phillips, Julian Alvarez and Stefan Ortega Moreno arriving.
West Ham are in need of a bigger rebuild and have made five signings so far. Moyes has admitted he is far from done in the window given the number of departures from the club this summer.
Predicted: David Moyes makes just one change from West Ham side which ended last season for Man City opener
And that will be painfully evident when West Ham take to the field against Man City on Sunday afternoon.
Because we predict Moyes makes just one change from the West Ham side which ended last season for the Man City opener.
New £30m defender Nayef Aguerd is out for another 10 weeks with an ankle injury.
Moyes has confirmed long-awaited £35m striker signing Gianluca Scamacca will not be involved against Man City as he is behind on pre-season fitness.
And Friday’s £17.5m arrival Maxwel Cornet was not registered by the deadline in order to line up for West Ham against Guardiola’s side.
West Ham’s midfield signing, Flynn Downes, is very much back-up to Declan Rice and Tomas Soucek.
While Moyes’ actions and comments in pre-season suggest Lukasz Fabianski remains his number one despite making Alphonse Areola’s loan from PSG permanent.
And we think that means there will be just one change from the side Moyes picked to start against Brighton at the end of last season.
We think Said Benrahma will come in from the start to replace Manuel Lanzini from that line-up.
Many fans will be frustrated with the lack of change to the starting XI. But when everyone is fit and available – and with Moyes still active in the window – West Ham’s starting XI will start to look very different in the coming weeks and months.
Predicted West Ham starting XI to face Man City:
Fabianski, Coufal, Dawson, Zouma, Cresswell, Rice, Soucek, Fornals, Benrahma, Bowen, Antonio.