Aston Villa welcome West Ham to Villa Park in an untelevised Super Sunday clash.
Victory could put Villa as high as seventh in the table, whilst West Ham will escape the relegation zone with a win.
Team News
Matty Cash and Ezri Konsa are set to return for Villa after they were named as unused substitutes in Villa’s comeback midweek Carabao Cup win at Bolton.
Jacob Ramsay and Emiliano Buendia were also dropped to the bench in midweek but made substitute appearances, so are expected to start in this match.
Ludwig Augustinsson (knee) is a doubt but Diego Carlos remains absent with a serious Achilles injury.
West Ham could welcome Vladimir Coufal back into contention after he sat out their midweek victory at Viborg due to concussion.
Craig Dawson (hamstring) is a doubt but Nayef Aguerd (ankle) remains absent.
Declan Rice is also set to be in contention after he served the second of a two-match European ban in midweek.
Stat Attack
- Aston Villa have won just one of their last 12 league meetings against West Ham (W1, D5, L6).
- West Ham have lost just one of their last six visits to Villa Park (W3, D2, L1).
- Victory would see West Ham record a fifth consecutive win over Villa for the first time since a six-match winning run between October 1964 – March 1967.
- Two of Villa’s three league goals so far this season have been scored by English players – Danny Ings and Ollie Watkins.
- West Ham are looking to avoid losing their four opening league matches for the first time since start of 2018-19 season.
Prediction
Following their defensive implosion which led to a 3-1 league defeat at Crystal Palace last weekend from a goal up, Villa certainly let their class show at Bolton in midweek with a brilliant recovery from one goal down to claim a ruthless win.
This game though is a huge must-win for Villa because they have two tricky encounters against Arsenal and Manchester City to come, followed by a local Midlands derby at Leicester which could go either way as pressure likely will be on Steven Gerrard’s Villains by then.
West Ham meanwhile have been toothless in their finishing touch in their opening three league matches despite playing well overall in attack, yet defence has constantly let them down but they managed a clean sheet away to Viborg on Thursday so hopefully it will mark a turning point here.
David Moyes’ Hammers also has a tough run of fixtures across league and Europe coming up from midweek until mid-September, so this is an absolute must-win if they’re to get their campaign on track otherwise it could be a difficult few weeks ahead.
Both teams though do need a win here for momentum sake but given Villa’s ongoing defensive issues with no clean sheets to West Ham’s one clean sheet, I can see a scrappy battle but the visitors should edge this if continue their solid away form in this fixture.
Prediction: Aston Villa 1-2 West Ham
Result: Aston Villa 0-1 West Ham
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