Manchester City 4-1 West Ham Review

Premier League GW20

MOTM: SAVINHO

Just like the result against Leicester City, there were plenty of reasons to come away from the match being positive and negative. To be excited and concerned about. But this is the first time the team has won back-to-back Premier League matches since October, Gundogan/Walker haven’t started the last three matches, nine days break before the next Premier League match, FA Cup game against Salford to rest/rotate/give minutes to squad players, and the transfer window remains open. There is an opportunity here for Manchester City to move in the right direction and get back into the top four.

Notable Stats:

• Erling Haaland has scored more headed goals than any other player in the Premier League since he joined Manchester City at the start of the 2022/23 campaign (14).  He's the only Premier League player in that time to score 10+ goals with his left foot, 10+ goals with his right foot, and 10+ goals with his head.

• Pep Guardiola is now unbeaten in all 18 Premier League games against West Ham. It’s the most a manager has faced a specific opponent without losing in the competition’s history.

• Manchester City have won two Premier League matches for the first time since October (Wolves. Southampton).

Game Stats:

Manchester City 4-1 West Ham

• xG: 2.03 - 1.19

• xThreat: 1.3 - 1.5

• Possession: 55.8% - 44.2%

• Field Tilt: 60.1% - 39.9%

• Penalty Box Shots: 7 - 14

• Deep Entries: 11 - 14

• PPDA: 12.1 - 11.6

• High Turnovers: 7 - 6

Manchester City played the same back four for three matches in a row, for the first time since August (United, Chelsea, Ipswich Town). Guardiola's second most used back four this season are Gvardiol, Ake, Akanji, and Lewis.

If you want to stay up-to-date on individual player minutes, back four combinations, underlying numbers, and more, check out the live Google sheet below. 👇

Manchester City named an unchanged starting eleven against West Ham, choosing to stick with Foden instead of starting James McAtee. Ederson is still not in the squad. Bobb, Rodri, Dias, and Stones are out through injury. West Ham made several changes with Todibo coming in for Mavropanos. Soler, Emerson, and Bowen made way for Summerville, Fulkrug, and Soucek.

Pep Guardiola mentioned after the match about the change in the buildup, which helped to keep Gvardiol off the ball in situations/positions where he’s made mistakes lately. As well as becoming a pressing trigger for the opposition. Usually, they’ll form a back four with the keeper and then move forward as a back three, Gvardiol as the LCB. This time they made a back three with the keeper, moving forward as a pairing, Gvardiol pushing up high as the LB. Stretching the distance for Kudus to cover, so that if he jumps onto Ake, Gvardiol can attack that space.

Across the opening 10 - 15 minutes we saw plenty of promising moves from West Ham through the Manchester City press to get in behind Gvardiol as Kudus attacked the space. Some were well-executed moves, others were made possible and made some City player mistakes.

Once West Ham got down to the other end of the pitch, Kovacic was unable to recover in time so the option to cut back was always on. Something we’ve seen against most teams this season and that’ll only be properly solved this season if they buy a midfielder in January.

V. Coufal 10' (OG) 1-0

There was more involvement from De Bruyne in the buildup, dropping deeper centrally, and in this sequence, he picked out Savinho on the left side. Important to note that Savinho takes his first touch, then comes inside to pull Coufal with him and opens up the space out wide before getting near the box. Drives forward with the ball and then stops, faking to go inside. All of that leaves him the space to cross on his left.

Goes back onto his left foot to cross, Todibo clears away and it lands De Bruyne. Back out to Savinho for another cross that takes a fortunate deflection and Manchester City gets the opening goal.

The most important takeaway is how well Savinho sets up before even getting near the box. Pulling Coufal inside, which we see later on for the second goal.

E. Haaland 42' 2-0 

More involvement of De Bruyne in the buildup, this time pulling out wide as Rico runs across and Foden moves inside. Haaland dropped to lay it off to Foden then a long pass out to Savinho on the left. These are the types of long passes you'll see more of if you get runners in front for Foden to pick out. We've seen it across the season, but in the last few matches in particular Haaland has been excellent dropping deep to be involved.

As mentioned for the first goal, Savinho sets himself up from the start with his first touch inside to take Coufal with him, cuts back onto his left, and goes around him.

Early cross floated to the back post, picking out the run of Haaland behind Kilman whose not tracked him. Very similar to the goal Haaland scored against Crystal Palace with Matheus Nunes as the provider.

E. Haaland 55' 3-0 

Another goal that starts with the buildup, is Akanji driving forward past Paqueta and passing to Savinho. He came inside and deeper to collect as Gvardiol pushed higher on the left side. Turns and drives at the back line before hitting the ball through to Haaland.

Have to mention Bernardo in the buildup, the kind of small things that he does can go unnoticed, dropping deep as Lucas Paqueta follows him. Then passes across to Akanji on the left. Now Paqueta has a big distance to cover, so it's easier for Akanji to burst past in. It also meant Paqueta wasn't able to catch up to Savinho in time.

Another goal where the movement of Haaland behind Kilman means he's not got a clue where he is. Similar to the goal against Juventus, this time Haaland takes a touch to the side and chips the keeper instead of trying the chip the first time.

Foden 58' 4-0

Something that's associated with the best of Manchester City is their high press, counter-press, and converting the turnovers high up the pitch into shots/goals. During this run they've failed to even turn the handful of high turnovers into shots, this time jumping on a mistake from West Ham playing out to score. The loose pass by Kudus from the 1-2 around Bernardo falls to De Bruyne, passing inside to Foden to score between the keeper's legs.

Shortly after the four-goal Guardiola took the opportunity to rest a couple of players with Kyle Walker (61’) coming on for Nathan Ake and Ilkay Gundogan (61’) coming on for Mateo Kovacic. For all the faults that Kovacic has shown in the role, it’s Gundogan and Walker that simply cannot be starting matches right now which is why they haven’t in the last three. We see the result again in the West Ham goal only shortly after coming on.

N. Füllkrug 71' 4-1

There is no dressing up what was a poor goal to concede. A long pass out to Foden from Bernardo is intercepted by AWB and passed inside to Paqueta. Gundogan has not tracked the run of Soucek, Walker is not tight to either Summerville or Soucek, leaving space for him to run into once the pass is played. Akanji points to Walker where he should be. Akanji in coming across to stop the cross leaves Fulkrug free, who is already in front of Gvardiol before the pass comes across.

James McAtee (80’) came on for Savinho and Jack Grealish (84’) came on for Erling Haaland. In the case of McAtee, I think the performance of Foden/De Bruyne proved it was right to start them again, both looking more like themselves. But he should be starting against Salford City at the weekend.

With Grealish, I think we are at the tail end of his City career, and when Guardiola talks about players who haven’t stepped up during this period he’s one of them. If Grealish was going to do that, it would have been off the bench against United, the first half against Aston Villa, and the match against Juventus. Bright spark playing as an eight against Nottingham Forest, but as he’s been this season and last, it wasn’t consistent. Especially being one of the highest earners in the squad, it’s time to move on and open up room for the new guys coming in. It’s not a surprise to me McAtee is getting subbed on ahead of him.

The final period of the match was poor for City in terms of keeping control, and there’s no doubt that the substitutes played a big role in that. The openings down our right side for Summerville to run at Kyle Walker. Leaving Rico Lewis to handle Kudus. The drop in intensity off the ball from Savinho to Grealish. Risk for worth taking in order to rest some players.

That’s going to be the real test of whether the team is back on the right path, heading to a top-four finish, if we see them perform consistently for ninety minutes and finish the game strong. Bournemouth (A) was probably the last time the team finished the final 15 minutes strong.

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Moving Forward

The team now has a few days of rest before the Salford City match in the FA Cup, which could see a fair amount of rotation given the Brentford match is three days later. The U21s have a match two days after on the 13th of January so I can’t imagine there will be a lot of changes to the team. But you’d expect the usual group of Nico O’Reilly, Jacob Wright, and Jahmai Simpson-Pusey to be involved. James McAtee to start. I’d like to see Rico Lewis, Gvardiol, Bernardo, and Haaland not play ninety minutes. Can’t imagine Nathan Ake will start given the comments after the match about him from Guardiola, making an incredible effort for the team in bad condition.

In Nunes, Savinho, Bernardo, Foden, Doku, Lewis, and De Bruyne you have several players that have stepped up with goal contributions, although not close to Haaland. That needs to continue, we need to see players crossing double figures by the end of January.

This time between the Brentford match also gives the club time to get in a player or two before, particularly looking at a midfielder given the issues highlighted with either Gundogan or Kovacic playing. Leaving space just waiting to be exposed.

Encouraging words from Guardiola in his post-match press conference, words that he’s probably been waiting to say for a long time not wanting to compound the mood during a losing streak but there have been players he trusted to step up who have not. Time to move them on with the rebuild.

Next up for Manchester City is Salford City in the 3rd round of the FA Cup, with the match kicking off on Saturday evening.