Hammers To Test Sven's Mettle

I can't believe it's already the start of the new season tomorrow - where did the Summer go to?

City start their campaign with an awkward looking away trip to West Ham where a pack of vulture-like press will hovering, just waiting to get their claws into Sven in the event of the slightest slip-up.

Make no mistake, the hatchet-happy hacks that write for the national press just can't wait for their first chance to stick the knife into Sven and the new look City, but hopefully they won't be given that opportunity tomorrow.

Like City, the Hammers have spent big over the summer with a lot of personnel changes, but with Curbishly at the helm, they will surely be a much tougher prospect than last season.

London always seems to be a bit of a graveyard for City, so to start the season with an away trip to the Capital is a little cruel. I suspect that over the course of the season the Upton Park will turn out to be a bit of a home fortress with very few away teams coming away with all three points.

City are a bit exposed at the back with unfortunate injuries to Isaksson and Hart, so young Kasper Schmeichel is on standby to play in goal, although it is thought that Hart may recover in time.

I'd happily settle for a draw tomorrow - preferably not a 0-0; a goal or two would be nice for the City away fans who will be braving the long trip down to the East End.

If the worst does happen and City come away with nothing then I hope we don't see the start of the "Sven Out" campaign by some disgruntled City fans. We need to be realistic here, it's going to take time for Sven to forge a team out of the individual players he's brought to the club over the summer; that's not going to happen overnight, but please can it happen before the 19th when we play Rags in the home Derby!


City (from): Hart, Schmeichel, Onuoha, Sun, Richards, Dunne, Corluka, Garrido, Ball, Hamann, Geovanni, Fernandes, Elano, Ireland, Johnson, Petrov, Bianchi, Vassell, Samaras, Bojinov, Corradi.