Two Man City players can banish recent demons in West Ham fixture

Haaland can silence doubters

It took Erling Haaland 12 minutes to announce himself as a Manchester City goalscorer in pre-season, and apparently just 90 minutes against Liverpool to become a flop again. Now, with all the warm-up games done, Haaland will be looking to silence all the ill-informed doubts from the last seven days based on one quiet game in the Community Shield.

Haaland says he will use that outing as motivation for City's Premier League kick-off, and Pep Guardiola isn't concerned as he warned: "Be careful what you say because he's going to deny all the opinions and score goals." After a week of strange external noise suggesting Haaland has somehow become a bad player on the back of one game, the striker can do his talking on the pitch at West Ham.

Ake deserves to keep his place

Nathan Ake has been one of City's best performers in pre-season, barring one switch-off vs Club America, and should start in the Premier League opener at West Ham. Aymeric Laporte is injured, John Stones hasn't played for the senior side in any of the warm-up games, and Ruben Dias looked shaky against Liverpool.

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After a move to Chelsea was denied, Ake says he's happy to stay and fight for his place at City this season. A mixture of opportunity and good form should present him with a starting spot at centre-back for the first league game, and it's up to him to show Guardiola that he deserves to keep it going forward.

Left-wing dilemma

Jack Grealish was good at West Ham in City's 2-2 draw at the London Stadium in May, and has been impressive in the three pre-season games so far, driving at full-backs and registering two assists from the Blues' four goals of the