Daniel Feliciano

Sun 7 August 2022 15:31, UK

David Moyes has gone with a familiar starting lineup for West Ham as they open their Premier League campaign against Manchester City this afternoon.

The Hammers have spent big this summer improving their squad with five permanent signings, but none of them start the game at the London Stadium against the champions as shared by the official Twitter account.

Lukasz Fabianski keeps his place in the side as the first-choice goalkeeper, while Flynn Downes starts as a substitute with Gianluca Scamacca. Nayef Aguerd is out injured, while Maxwel Cornet wasn’t signed in time to be available for this game.

Moyes has opted for a more offensive shape with what looks like Ben Johnson at centre-back alongside Kurt Zouma, while Aaron Cresswell and Vladimir Coufal start at full-back.

Michail Antonio starts up front, supported by Jarrod Bowen and Pablo Fornals while Declan Rice and Tomas Soucek continue in midfield. Manuel Lanzini makes up the lineup.

West Ham XI: Fabianski; Coufal, Johnson, Zouma, Cresswell; Soucek, Rice; Bowen, Fornals, Lanzini; Antonio.

Experience

Despite spending big money this summer, it’s a very familiar lineup with no debuts handed out by Moyes on this occasion.

Aguerd and Scamacca would surely have started had they been available to, but the decision to go with Fabianski over Alphonse Areola is one that fans aren’t best pleased about.

The formation is something that is a bit of a surprise, considering the success West Ham had last season against the big sides when they were more pragmatic in their approach and made themselves really hard to beat.

Antonio will be hungry to keep his place going forward with a good performance, while new number 2 Johnson will be hoping to perform well enough to be a regular this season too.

But with such a familiar side, it’s likely that we’ll see a familiar performance and the team will have to be performing at their optimum level to get something out of this game against the best team in the country.