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Man City: Ederson, Walker, Ruben Dias, Laporte, Joao Cancelo, Rodri, Gundogan (c), Bernardo Silva, Mahrez, Sterling, Gabriel Jesus Subs: Steffen (GK), Carson (GK), Stones, Ake, Zinchenko, Fernandinho, Palmer, McAtee
West Ham: Fabianski, Johnson, Dawson, Zouma, Cresswell, Masuaku, Rice (c), Soucek, Fornals, Benrahma, Antonio Subs: Areola (GK), Coufal, Diop, Kral, Noble, Lanzini, Bowen, Vlasic, Yarmolenko

Hammers fans have grown accustomed to seeing David Moyes and his coaching staff prowling around the dug out during games including England set piece adviser Paul Nevin, he who is always speaking into a 'lip mic'. Ever wonder who on earth he is speaking to? Well none other than Psycho himself, Stuart Pearce. Around the time the Pandemic first made games crowdless, David Moyes tested positive and had to view the matches remotely, relying on his staff to keep him informed during the game.

Ahead of this afternoon's 'six pointer' between Manchester City and West Ham, both managers almost went to extreme measures in order to 'compliment' each other's teams during their pre-match pressers. The respect is mutual but does contain an underlying myth busting message.

Hammers head up to Manchester to face City at the Etihad knowing full well that their hosts have been dismantling teams for fun of late, the daunting prospect having been made more acute due to Angelo Ogbonna being out with his ACL injury. It was plain to see that Kurt Zouma's display was compromised during the defeat against Wolves, as he was forced to play on the left as opposed to his preferred right in order to accommodate Craig Dawson, who is definitely NOT able to play on the left.

Having dithered and procrastinated long enough, we have finally managed to make the Org mobile friendly. The difficulty we had was in trying to ensure the lay out remained basically the same, but to make it far easier to read on mobile phones and tablets.

The Africa Cup of Nations returns in January and looks set to leave a number of Premier League clubs short of key players, some more than others! The following list shows the downside of having too many AFCON players in a club's squad, the most severely hit would be Watford with FIVE players due to be jetting off after boxing day!

FIVE: Watford : FOUR: Arsenal, Leicester, Palace THREE: Brentford, Liverpool and Villa TWO: Chelsea, Everton, Man Utd and Southampton ONE: Brighton, Burnley, Man City and West Ham NONE: Leeds, Newcastle, Norwich and Tottingham

With the preceding game to West Ham's 'murder month' being an away fixture against League Champions Manchester City, David Moyes knows now, more than ever, that his squad is going to be stretched to the limit. It is well known how paper thin Hammers squad is, especially for a side fighting on four fronts, so fans will be looking to see how Moyes copes with the deluge of games that are about to descend on the club.

Elite football managers have always been notoriously economical with the truth during their prearranged Press conferences, the higher up the management echelon you go, the more 'vague' the communication often is. Manchester's leading newspaper, The Manchester Evening News asked the following question as a result of what their City's best football club manager had said.

Last season's Hammer of the Year Tomas Soucek has played non stop domestic and International football for the last couple of years, the effects of which are definitely showing signs of catching up with him! Both Soucek and his Czech colleague Vladimir Coufal impressed with their almost super human energy after joining the club, but it appears that commitment came at a collateral cost, essentially both players have look knackered since the start of the season and in need of a 'proper' rest.

When David Moyes first arrived at West Ham following the sacking of Slaven Billic his brief was to save the club from relegation, which he did. One of the 'tools' he used to successfully complete his task was a 'flying wing back' deployment, featuring Aaron Cresswell with Authur Mauaku in tandem.