BBC Sport pundit Mark Lawrenson has delivered his prediction for West Ham United’s Premier League clash with Manchester City on Saturday.
Predictably the scoreline isn’t encouraging reading from a Hammers perspective, with the Liverpool legend expecting a 2-0 victory for Pep Guardiola’s side at the London Stadium.
Manchester City are currently unbeaten at the very top of the Premier League table, while the Hammers sit 13th, coming off the back of a 1-1 draw with Huddersfield.
“The international break can be a distraction for the top teams and stop their momentum but I do not see that happening with Manchester City,” he wrote on the BBC Sport website.
“City boss Pep Guardiola will be on to his players straight away, ensuring they have got their focus back.
“It is seven wins in a row for City in all competitions, and I think they will make it eight this weekend. West Ham boss Manuel Pellegrini, who won the title with City in 2014, is starting to get some consistency from his attacking players like Felipe Anderson and Marko Arnautovic, but upsetting his old team is a big ask.”
OPINION
It’s hard to disagree with Lawrenson, here. It’s difficult, really, to picture almost any team in world football knocking off City right now, least of all West Ham. Having said that, the Hammers do have the players to cause City some difficulty. The likes of Arnautovic and Anderson will be tricky customers to handle, while youngster Grady Diangana’s pace and direct running could cause problems for the champions’ backline. The main difficulty will, of course, be keeping Guardiola’s side out at the other end of the pitch. Manuel Pellegrini’s side have looked more solid at the back of late, buoyed by a blossoming partnership between centre halves Issa Diop and Fabian Balbuena, but it will still be immensely difficult to keep this City side off the scoresheet. Ultimately when you’re talking about teams of City’s quality all you can do is play your best and hope they have an off day, but Lawrenson’s 2-0 prediction sounds about right.
