Mark Lawrenson doesn’t seem to feel 100 per cent certain that Manchester city will triumph at the London Stadium on Sunday and that’s a surprise in itself.

In the end of course he comes down in their favour but believes there are factors which will ensure there is no spectacular five goal win.

Whether that’s a good or bad thing I’ll leave you to decide given his past record but he certainly  doesn’t seem ready to go out on a limb and predict a hiding for the Hammers.

Defensive problems have hit Pep Guardiola’s side and that may well have an effect although we will unquestionably being doing our own share of that over the 90 minutes.

The BBC pundit points out what we reported following the Wolves game that Fernandinho and Aymeric Laporte both got injured against Wolves so it looks like Manchester City might be missing a couple more players at the back, which makes things interesting.

He writes: “It’s not so much of a problem in open play, because we know West Ham won’t have much of the ball, but if City have a makeshift defence they will have to be very careful when they defend set-pieces because the Hammers pose a real threat there.”

That’s a very fair point!

He adds: ” It helps City that they can afford to draw here, because that way they would still finish above Liverpool if they beat Aston Villa on the final day of the season.

I actually think they will go to London Stadium and win, though.

It won’t be as spectacular as their 5-1 win at Molineux on Wednesday because I think West Ham will keep things tight and try to pinch it, but City’s attacking power means they should edge it.

Lawro’s prediction: 1-2