How Man City should line up vs West Ham in Premier League opener

Manchester City begin their Premier League title defence with a trip to the London Stadium to take on West Ham.

City have a good recent record against the Hammers, though they dropped points at the same ground in May last season and tasted defeat to David Moyes' side in the League Cup in October. Pep Guardiola will be without Aymeric Laporte for the trip to the capital, although he looks set to hand a league debut to Erling Haaland.

City sold Gabriel Jesus, Raheem Sterling and Aleks Zinchenko in the summer, so this league season may be a test of the depth available to Guardiola. Read how our writers think City should line up against West Ham and use the interactive team selector below to pick your best starting XI:

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Simon Bajkowski

City need as many players as possible who are comfortable operating in small spaces, because if West Ham are anything like they have been in recent years they will give almost nothing up.

That means Phil Foden in from the start, despite his scarce minutes in pre-season and Jack Grealish doing so well, and it also means Ilkay Gundogan getting the nod ahead of Bernardo Silva for his extra goal threat. Mahrez needs to be at his best not to be at risk of an early substitution because West Ham have stifled him before by shutting down all space in the box — although the arrival of Haaland could change that.

This could also be a game where substitutes are key; you would expect at least Grealish and probably Julian Alvarez as well to come on and play a role in getting the result City are after. John Stones can come back in as City's best ball-playing defender and the rest of the defence picks itself.

Pick your best team here: