West Ham United v Manchester City Ex-England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson makes his Premier League managerial debut.
West Ham United will be without newly-appointed captain Lucas Neill and summer signing Scott Parker for this clash against Manchester City. Manager Alan Curbishley confirmed both players had "tweaked" their knee ligaments during pre-season but should be available for the Hammers' trip to Birmingham City next weekend. New arrivals Craig Bellamy and Freddie Ljungberg are in line to make their league debuts for West Ham - and both are in the running to take over as captain in Neill's absence. Curbishley is without French midfielder Julien Faubert, a £6.1million signing, until the new year after he ruptured an Achilles tendon, while Nigel Quashie (ankle) and Calum Davenport (hernia) are also sidelined.
likely to feature
Two of City's summer arrivals Vedran Corluka and Valeri Bojinov were granted work permits on Friday. But Bojinov is the only one likely to feature in manager Sven-Goran Eriksson's plans as Corluka was forced to return home to Croatia on Thursday night to ensure he got an official stamp in his passport. England Under-21 international Joe Hart will probably be handed his Barclays Premier League debut in a side likely to contain five of Eriksson's eight new signings. Emile Mpenza (hamstring) and Andreas Isaksson (fractured finger) are both out.
teams:
West Ham (from): Green, Wright, Spector, Pantsil, Ferdinand, Upson, Collins, Gabbidon, McCartney, Ljungberg, Bowyer, Noble, Boa Morte, Etherington, Mullins, Ashton, Bellamy, Zamora, Cole.
Manchester City (from): Hart, Schmeichel, Onuoha, Sun, Richards, Dunne, Corluka, Garrido, Ball, Hamann, Geovanni, Fernandes, Elano, Ireland, Johnson, Petrov, Bianchi, Vassell, Samaras, Bojinov, Corradi.