Aston Villa host West Ham in a tasty Premier League encounter at Villa Park,
Victory will see Aston Villa return to fifth, whilst West Ham themselves can go fifth with a win.
Team News
Tim Iroegbunam is a doubt for Aston Villa as he continues to build up his match fitness.
Tyrone Mings (knee), Alex Moreno (fitness), Jacob Ramsey (foot) and Emiliano Buendia (ACL) remain ruled out.
West Ham could hand goalkeeper, Lukasz Fabianski a fitness test after he missed their 2-2 draw against Newcastle with a knock.
Ben Johnson (groin) and Aaron Cresswell (hamstring) are also set to face late fitness tests.
When is Kick-Off?
Aston Villa host West Ham at Villa Park in a 4:30pm BST kick-off on Sunday 22 October, live on Sky Sports in the UK.
Stat Attack
- Aston Villa are winless in their last ten meetings against West Ham (D4, L6).
- West Ham are unbeaten in their last five visits to Aston Villa (W3, D2).
- West Ham’s Pablo Fornals has scored in each of his last two away appearances against Villa.
- John McGinn and Douglas Luiz have created more through balls than any other Villa player this season, having each played four through ball passes apiece.
- Jarrod Bowen has scored in all four of West Ham’s away games in the Premier League this season (W2, D1, L1).
Prediction
Having dominated away to Wolves a fortnight ago, Villa will be disappointed to have drawn 1-1 but they were simply played tactically in an attacking sense with Ollie Watkins isolated, which is something that they won’t want here because he is one of their best attacking forwards at present.
West Ham though will be relieved to have snatched a late draw against Newcastle after letting their one-goal lead slip, yet their stronger energy and passionate attacking play saw them battle back against a fatigued Newcastle team.
Neither team though will want to lose this with the top four beginning to pull away already so I do expect a tough contest at Villa Park, especially if Watkins and Bowen are at their best after featuring for England during the international break.
Villa’s record against West Ham in recent seasons though has been poor but I do expect them to have enough quality to cause issues for the Hammers, with a draw looking like a fair guess although victory will surely be on the minds of both teams given what’s at stake.
Prediction: Aston Villa 1-1 West Ham
Result: Aston Villa 4-1 West Ham
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