Credit: Imago

James Barker

Sun 15 March 2026 14:40, UK

West Ham United threw an unexpected spanner into the Premier League relegation battle, with a brilliant 1-1 draw against Man City on Saturday.

Nuno Espirito Santo’s side came into the game off the back of a penalty shootout win over Brentford in the FA Cup, and a 1-0 win against Fulham in their previous Premier League game respectively.

However, the odds were naturally stacked against the Hammers to put a nail in Man City’s title hopes coffin on Saturday, but that’s precisely what they did.

Konstantinos Mavropanos’ 35th-minute equaliser cancelled out Bernardo Silva’s earlier opener, earning West Ham a precious point against Man City.

West Ham will surely stick with three at the back after Man City

West Ham were winless in 20 league games against Man City coming into Saturday’s latest renewal of this fixture, but whilst that unwanted record has been extended, the Hammers won’t be overly disappointed.

It was an extremely hard-fought point, but one that Nuno’s side thoroughly deserved come full-time, as West Ham defended spiritedly with the kind of fight that fans have been desperate to see this season.

Nuno made a tactical tweak for the visit of the Cityzens, switching to a 3-4-2-1 formation as opposed to the back four approach that the Hammers boss has routinely been deploying this term.

It saw Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Malick Diouf operating as wing-backs, with a back three of Axel Disasi, Mavropanos and Jean-Clair Todibo, respectively, and it worked to perfection.

As per Sofascore, City were limited to just one big chance at the London Stadium, despite monopolising the ball with 71 per cent possession and 755 passes made in the game.

Just six of their 24 shots were on target, as the Hammers defended in a compact and organised unit, restricting high-quality chances for Guardiola’s array of elite forwards to punish them.

In short, it was a textbook defensive performance from West Ham, and exactly the type that, if they can replicate, moving forward, should pave the way for Premier League survival.

Nuno should press on with back three vs Aston Villa

Now, until West Ham do indeed defend like that again, there will of course be a narrative floating around that this was a fluke performance, and that they were lucky to catch Man City in a rare spell of poor form.

And so, that’s precisely why Nuno should deploy his troops in the exact same way when they travel to Villa Park to take on Aston Villa next Sunday.

Unai Emery’s side aren’t the animal that they were from earlier in the season, but they’re in the Champions League race for a reason, and if you were to offer any West Ham fan a point from that game right now, the vast majority would surely take it.

With forwards such as Jarrod Bowen, Crysencio Summerville and Taty Castellanos in attack, so long as West Ham can keep providing a watertight rearguard to build from, Nuno will be confident they’ll score enough goals to stay up.

It looks as though three at the back gives them the best chance to do that.