Preview: West Ham United vs. Manchester City
- Soccer News 2024/08/31 03:00
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After beginning his reign as West Ham manager with a 2-1 Premier League defeat to Aston Villa, Julen Lopetegui celebrated his first triumph last weekend as his new-look Hammers side secured a 2-0 victory away against Crystal Palace.
Following a goalless first half, Tomas Soucek opened the scoring on the 67-minute mark, five minutes before captain Jarrod Bowen added a second, and the Hammers went on to keep their first Premier League clean sheet since January, ending a 19-game run without a shutout.
West Ham have since progressed to the third round of the EFL Cup after edging past fellow top-flight side Bournemouth by a 1-0 scoreline at the London Stadium on Wednesday night, albeit in fortunate circumstances as their 88th-minute winner would presumably have been disallowed if VAR had been in use, as Mohammed Kudus's shot bounced off Bowen's arm before making the net ripple.
Lopetegui's side have been rewarded with a tricky third-round trip to holders Liverpool next month, but they will first turn their attention back to the Premier League, with a challenging home encounter against Man City followed by an away clash with Fulham.
Success over Man City has been hard to come by for West Ham, as they have failed to win any of their last 17 Premier League meetings with the Citizens since a 2-1 away victory in September 2015 under former boss Slaven Bilic.
Man City have been relatively slow starters under Pep Guardiola in recent years, but they have already bagged the Community Shield and have picked up maximum points from their opening two Premier League matches this term, scoring six goals and conceding only one.
Four of those top-flight goals have been scored by leading marksman Erling Haaland, winner of the Golden Boot in the last two seasons, who followed up his strike in a 2-0 opening win at Chelsea with his 10th Man City hat-trick in a 4-1 home victory over newly-promoted Ipswich Town last weekend.
The Tractor Boys had a dream start at the Etihad Stadium as Sammie Szmodics scored on his full debut inside the opening seven minutes, but that strike poked the bear and the visitors were emphatically punished by the defending champions, who hit back with three goals in just four minutes.
Kevin De Bruyne netted in between two strikes from Haaland, before the Norwegian completed his hat-trick in the closing stages to ensure City extend their impressive record run of Premier League wins by two or more goals to 11 games; they have also not lost any of their last 46 home matches in all competitions.
Man City also boast a strong record away against Saturday's opponents West Ham as they have lost just one of their last 14 league visits to the Hammers and are unbeaten in their last nine since a 2-1 defeat at Upton Park in October 2014.
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