West Ham United – Manchester City

We expect goals from both teams in the opening match of the season

One of the most interesting encounters in the first round of the Premier League on Sunday will be between West Ham and Manchester City in London. The visitors sealed the league title in dramatic fashion in the last round of last season and are favourites to win the title again. Bookmakers are predicting a defence of the title for City at odds of 1.70, which in the English premier division looks like a significant indicator of the club's strength. West Ham are just the 12th on their list of Championship gold medal contenders, but the Hammers have not been favourites to win the title in past seasons either, finishing in the bottom sixth or seventh places, bidding for Champions League positions in the course of the season. Manchester City sold Zinchenko, Sterling and Jesus in the off-season but are unlikely to be any weaker as one of the world's best forwards, Erling Holland, has joined the Mancunian club. In addition, Pep Guardiola has strengthened the supporting midfield with the signing of Calvin Phillips from Leeds. Manchester City only played friendlies in the third decade of July, which made the team's preparation drastically different from the rest of the Premier League. The opponents were America and Bayern, beaten by Pep's charges. The other thing is that in the first official meeting of the 2022/2023 season, City lost the FA Super Cup to Liverpool 1-3. West Ham have worked more zealously in the transfer market, spending around €111 million on new players. "The Hammers have already obtained a full-fledged Italian striker Gianluca Scamacca, Rennes defender Naif Ager, PSG goalkeeper Alphonse Areola, as well as several good players from the Championship. At the same time, West Ham have cleaned up their squad, releasing the age-old Noble and Martin on a free transfer, as well as the not particularly useful Yarmolenko, Fredericks and Masuaku. The capital club played seven friendlies in July, winning just two of them. The duels between West Ham and Manchester City have been among the toughest for the champions in recent years. Since the autumn of 2020, the London club has twice taken points from the Premier League favourites and knocked them out of last year's English League Cup. And West Ham have scored in all four of their last four league meetings with the Citizens. Given that Manchester City were struggling in the beginning in the last few seasons, we should also bet on goals from both teams this time as well.