West Ham have been given a boost ahead of our clash with Manchester City this weekend with the visitors suffering injury concerns.

Both the Hammers and Citizens are looking to extend their unbeaten starts to the season as they meet at the London Stadium on Saturday. Despite City, unsurprisingly, being favourites heading into the game, West Ham will be full of confidence that they can pull off a shock result.

Luckily, it’s not just their recent results that will give them confidence. At the start of the season, Kevin De Bruyne suffered a serious hamstring injury and this is going to keep him sidelined for quite some time. His pinpoint passing is something City certainly miss but they have such quality and depth that, in all honesty, it isn’t going to matter all that much against most teams.

Another long term absentee is John Stones, who’s not played a single game this season. It’s unclear whether the international break would have seen him recover yet but it’s unlikely that he’d be fit to play a full 90 minutes either way. On top of this, fellow England international Jack Grealish withdrew from his national team’s games due to issues with his thigh. He’s another one who may feature as it’s not expected to have been a major issue.

The final confirmed injury is that of Mateo Kovacic who was expected to be back from injury ahead of Croatia’s second international game. Unfortunately for Man City, the injury may be worse than first feared with him being potentially sidelined for their visit to the London Stadium as well as their upcoming Champions League fixtures.

Much to our delight, there’s speculation around Erling Haaland’s fitness. The goal scoring machine has started this campaign as he means to go on, scoring 6 in 4 Premier League games but he was struggling in Norway’s match vs Georgia. He did see out the game despite clearly being in pain but there’s been nothing more said on the matter.

West Ham had an injury scare of their own, James Ward-Prowse picked up a knock during the international break but resumed training yesterday and is expected to be available for selection on Saturday.

It’s the toughest game on paper in the Irons incredibly tough run of fixtures but these injuries might just give us a foot in the door to finally get the recognition we deserve for this immense start to the season.

By Charlie Bass