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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.

"Crazy as this would have sounded a couple of months ago, do David Moyes’ West Ham represent a bigger challenge than Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappe, Neymar and friends? Well, yes, if recent evidence is anything to go by". They then proceeded to quote City manager Pep Guardiola. “We know which team we are going to face. They are doing incredibly well this season,” Guardiola said before making an honest admission over the 2-1 win against the Hammers in last season’s corresponding fixture. “I think last season at home, if there was a game where we did not deserve to win it was against West Ham. “They were much better. We won for two actions, but they were better than us.”

Is this Pep playing mind games ahead of Sunday's match? It is difficult to say, he was definitely magnanimous if defeat when Hammers knocked his team out of the Carabou Cup, so perhaps his comments are genuine, but you can bet your bottom dollar that he has Hammers firmly in his sights as he prepares his team ahead of the 'top four' game.

You see, that final sentence is in itself is such a strange utterance, 'top four' fixture involving West Ham and Manchester City! OK the likelihood is that this match will end up as a victory for the home side, Kevin De Bruyne is unlikely to feature as he continues his recovery from coronavirus and Jack Grealish is battling to return to fitness, but City have an embarrassment of riches to call upon and will unleash a raft of talent against a Hammers side that looked less than impressive on their last Premier League outing.

Ironically, this 'high profile game will NOT be shown live on TV in the UK, fans will no doubt find their own way to stream the match and see what the rest of the world sees. City when they are firing on all cylinders are unstoppable, Hammers fans can only City have a misfire on the day. LNIs Pep Playing Mind Games-Or Speaking The Truth?
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. One of Manchester's newspapers asked the following question.

"Crazy as this would have sounded a couple of months ago, do David Moyes’ West Ham represent a bigger challenge than Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappe, Neymar and friends? Well, yes, if recent evidence is anything to go by". They then proceeded to quote City manager Pep Guardiola. “We know which team we are going to face. They are doing incredibly well this season,” Guardiola said before making an honest admission over the 2-1 win against the Hammers in last season’s corresponding fixture. “I think last season at home, if there was a game where we did not deserve to win it was against West Ham. “They were much better. We won for two actions, but they were better than us.”

Is this Pep playing mind games ahead of Sunday's match? It is difficult to say, he was definitely magnanimous if defeat when Hammers knocked his team out of the Carabou Cup, so perhaps his comments are genuine, but you can bet your bottom dollar that he has Hammers firmly in his sights as he prepares his team ahead of the 'top four' game.

You see, that final sentence is in itself is such a strange utterance, 'top four' fixture involving West Ham and Manchester City! OK the likelihood is that this match will end up as a victory for the home side, Kevin De Bruyne is unlikely to feature as he continues his recovery from coronavirus and Jack Grealish is battling to return to fitness, but City have an embarrassment of riches to call upon and will unleash a raft of talent against a Hammers side that looked less than impressive on their last Premier League outing.

Ironically, this 'high profile game will NOT be shown live on TV in the UK, fans will no doubt find their own way to stream the match and see what the rest of the world sees. City when they are firing on all cylinders are unstoppable, Hammers fans can only City have a misfire on the day. LN

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.

Coufal had the 'luxury' of being injured and therefore was able to recuperate whilst getting fit again, his place HAS been taken in the starting line up by the excellent Ben Johnson, perhaps the same thing needs to happen to Tomas Soucek. David Moyes has a custom made replacement in the form of Alex Kral who has been very unfortunate not to have received more game time as a result of having contracted 'long Covid'.

Last night Vladiimir Coufal looked like a new man as he patrolled the right flank, looking like he had never been away, with games coming thick and fast Moyes must surely deploy Kral sooner rather than later. The original thinking that Soucek would play himself back into form has proven to be incorrect, the big Czech midfielder is probably a victim of his own desire to be the best and as such he has not DEMANDED to be rested, but he should be!

Alex Kral was brought in especially to provide strength in depth for the midfield, Mark Noble has done wondrously well when asked to step in, all very good for cup competitions, but 'Nobs' himself will admit that he cannot cut it in the Premier League anymore, save for the odd cameo appearance to help see games out.

We can see little point in NOT using Kral for at least SOME of the games during December, otherwise why did Moyes bring him to the club in the first place? - LN

Vienna: Gartler, Stojkovic, Hofmann, Aiwu, Moormann, Petrovic, Ljubicic,Arase, Knasmullner, Fountas, Kitagawa Subs: Hedl, Orgler, Ballo, Schick, Grahovac, Strunz, Auer, Grull, Kara, Ullmann, Dijakovic, Sulzbacher.
West Ham: Areola, Coufal, Dawson, Diop, Masuaku, Noble ©️, Soucek, Lanzini, Vlasic, Yarmolenko, Bowen Subs: Randolph (GK), Cresswell, Zouma, Fornals, Fredricks, Benrahma, Johnson, Kral, Rice, Alese, Chesters, Perkins

Sebastien Haller was at it again this evening, scoring ANOTHER two goals as Ajax beat Besiktas 2-1 in their Champions League tie. That makes it an astonishing NINE goals so far in the competition for the Hammers striker who failed to adapt to the Premier League and was sold for a £25 Million loss to Ajax.

Haller has been scoring goals for fun in Holland in what is considered to be a much less competitive league Champions League is a different level! Maybe Hammers should have given Haller more time, or maybe he just needed to be in a fresh environment having been severely tarnished during the Pellegrini era?-Ed