Ortega Moreno starts for City - Ake and Bernardo return | OneFootball

City make three changes for the visit of West Ham.

Stefan Ortega Moreno starts in goal, with Ederson on the bench.

Bernardo replaces Ilkay Gundogan, while there is a welcome return for Nathan Ake, in for Manuel Akanji.

Kyle Walker skippers the team this evening.

line-ups

City XI: Ortega Moreno, Walker (c), Ake, Stones, Dias, Rodrigo, Bernardo, Grealish, Mahrez, Alvarez, Haaland

Subs: Ederson, Phillips, Gundogan, Laporte, Gomez, Akanji, Perrone, Foden, Lewis

West Ham XI: Fabianski, Coufal, Kehrer, Ogbonna, Cresswell, Emerson, Downes, Fornals, Paqueta, Bowen, Antonio.

Subs: Areola, Anang, Johnson, Lanzini, Cornet, Ings, Benrahma.

Formation

There are two distinct possibilities formation-wise given the Blues' starting XI.

One is that City will go 4-2-3-1 and the other is that we will play 4-4-2.

Given the latter is not a regular Pep Guardiola plan, it seems the former is more likely!

That would mean Walker and Ake as full-backs, Ruben Dias and John Stones in central defence with Rodrigo and Bernardo sitting as holding midfielders.

Jack Grealish, Riyad Mahrez and Julian Alvarez would then form an attacking trio behind Erling Haaland.

As always, it's likely to be a fluid formation with players taking up a variety of positions as and when required.

No let up for City

One thing is for certain on the season run-in, there will be no let up for City.

The games are coming thick and fast, and every match has plenty riding on it.

Pep Guardiola and his players are rightly focusing on the next game only, and that mantra will last until the end of the campaign.

Arsenal’s win over Chelsea keeps the pressure on the Blues, though the City boss wouldn’t have expected anything less.

West Ham will come to the Etihad looking for points with the Hammers still involved in the relegation scrap.

It means that, aside from minor tweaks to the starting XI, there is little or no room to rest four or five of the team in one go.

hammers Set-piece threat

Guardiola will be wary of giving the Hammers too many set-piece opportunities.

David Moyes’ side have scored six goals from corners in their last six matches and represent a genuine threat from any dead-ball situations around the City box.

The visitors know that few teams can live with the Blues in full flow, so expect them to be trying to get corners and free-kicks in areas where they can cause problems whenever the opportunity arises – and expect City to be very mindful of those statistics.

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