West Ham United are being thrown into the fire on their return to Premier League football on Saturday, as they welcome champions Manchester City to the London Stadium.
Manuel Pellegrini’s side have made encouraging progress in recent weeks but there is no doubt that they will be facing the toughest test of their season against Pep Guardiola’s league leaders.
The Hammers boss must decide how bold to go with his tactics, whether to immediately reinstate captain Mark Noble after suspension and whether or not to change the formation to accommodate the skipper’s potential return.
It’s likely that he will do the latter, reverting to the 4-3-3 that enjoyed success before Andriy Yarmolenko’s injury and Noble’s red card against Leicester City. Young attacker Grady Diangana will probably miss out with senior ace Noble coming back into midfield.
Lukasz Fabianski will surely keep his place in between the sticks. The Poland international has arguably been West Ham’s player of the season so far and dropping him has likely never crossed Pellegrini’s mind.
The back four essentially picks itself at this point. Pablo Zabaleta is entrenched on the right hand side, especially after Ryan Fredericks’ injury, and will surely start. Fabian Balbuena and Issa Diop, meanwhile are near certainties to resume their partnership in the middle. Aaron Cresswell’s superior defensive nous likely gives him the nod over Arthur Masuaku on the left.
With the 4-3-3 formation set to return, the midfield three that made it so successful in the early stages of the campaign will surely reconvene in the middle of the park.
Declan Rice has been a model of consistency and will likely shoulder much of the defensive burden against City. Pedro Obiang and the returning Noble will surely partner him.
Up top, youngster Diangana looks set to cruelly miss out. He has been impressive recently but Robert Snodgrass’ experience likely gives him the edge in such a big game. Felipe Anderson and Marko Arnautovic are fairly automatic selections alongside the Scotland international.