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After his West Ham United tenure began with a rather forgetful 2-1 loss at home to Aston Villa on the opening weekend of the season, Julen Lopetegui recovered to get his life in London up and running with a 2-0 derby win over Crystal Palace last time out. The Spaniard will be happy with his management in securing those confidence boosting three points, after fan favourites Tomáš Souček and Jarrod Bowen got the goals, while big-money signings Max Kilman and Aaron Wan-Bissaka helped keep a clean sheet at the other end.
Lopetegui still has a long way to go to truly win over the London Stadium faithful, and nothing will fast track his popularity quite like a win over the marauding juggernaut that is Manchester City. The odds are understandably stacked against him in that endeavour, since the Hammers have failed to win any of their last 17 Premier League meetings with the defending champions (D3, L14).
In that time, City have netted 27 of the 42 goals they’ve scored away to West Ham in the Premier League overall, the most they’ve managed against a single opponent on the road. Pep Guardiola’s men will be keen on adding a few more to that tally too if their start to the season is anything to go by, having already netted six times en route to 2-0 and 4-1 wins over Chelsea and Ipswich respectively.
Those victories cap off what is now 21 games without defeat (W18, D3) in the top-flight in 2024, their longest-ever unbeaten run in league action to start a calendar year. When travelling, the Citizen’s undefeated streak across all competitions stretches back even further to October 2023 (W16, D2), and their dominance has been amplified in their last five road trips which they’ve won without even conceding.
Players to watch: Michail Antonio remains just one goal or assist away from becoming the first player to register 100 goal contributions (G67, A32) for West Ham in the Premier League. His efforts might be in vain if City’s Kevin De Bruyne dictates the game, something he’s done against West Ham regularly with nine goal contributions across 14 Premier League appearances against them (G3, A6).
Hot stat: City have led at both half-time and full-time in nine of their last 11 Premier League matches.
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