West Ham United’s line-up for their trip to Anfield in Gameweek 1 will have a very different look to the side that sleepwalked to a 13th-place finish in 2017/18.
Summer signings Lukasz Fabianski (£4.5m), Issa Diop (£4.5m), Fabian Balbuena (£4.5m), Ryan Fredericks (£5.0m), Jack Wilshere (£5.0m), Andriy Yarmolenko (£7.0m) and Felipe Anderson (£7.0m) all have realistic chances of starting against Liverpool a week on Sunday, while new manager Manuel Pellegrini has ditched the three-man backline favoured by predecessor David Moyes in favour of an attacking 4-3-3.
West Ham were a team of contradictions last season; no side conceded more league goals than the Hammers, but only the clubs finishing in the top seven kept more clean sheets.
Similarly, while their total of 48 goals scored was the eighth-best in the division, their underlying attacking statistics were mostly unremarkable – more of which we will discuss later in this article.
A grim-looking opening run of fixtures in which the Hammers play five of the “big six” in the first nine Gameweeks will likely deter too much Fantasy investment in Pellegrini’s side, but in Marko Arnautovic (£7.0m) the east London club have a player bang in form and in high demand among Fantasy Premier League managers.
In-depth data on West Ham’s season is available in the Members’ Area, while Fantasy Football Scout members can also read our detailed analysis of the key statistics in the feature below.
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