The games continue to come thick and fast for Aston Villa with David Moyes and his West Ham side the latest opponents to visit Villa Park.
Dean Smith’s men will be hoping for an improved performance but equally another three points to build on the win against Southampton at the weekend. West Ham will be looking to get back to winning ways following a 3-1 defeat to Liverpool. A win for the Hammers would mean the double over Villa following their 2-1 victory at the London Stadium earlier this campaign.
Who would have predicted in the summer that when these both sides met they would both have one eye on a potential European spot? Both sides have been much improved on their campaigns last time out and will want to finish the campaign the way they started.
Villa gave away two very soft goals despite dominating West Ham last time out. There was also that controversial VAR decision that we won’t go into detail about. It was a tough defeat to take at the time so hopefully, the boys are at their best so we can take all three points this time around.
TEAM NEWS
Villa’s team came out of the Southampton victory unscathed so Smith will once again have a virtually fully fit side to choose from.
Kortney Hause has been ruled out for 4-6 weeks following a foot injury while Wesley continues to up his fitness in preparation for his return to first-team football.
Morgan Sanson will be hoping to feature at some point and make his debut for the club.
Michael Antonio will be available for West Ham following his early withdrawal in the defeat to Liverpool.
Moyes has confirmed that new loan signing Jesse Lingard will travel and could make his debut for the Hammers.
THE OFFICIALS
Referee: Andy Madley.
Assistants: Richard West, James Mainwaring. Fourth official: Matt Donohue. VAR: Jarred Gillett. Assistant VAR: Stephen Child.
DID YOU KNOW
Aston Villa have kept a clean sheet in each of their last three games at Villa Park. The last time they kept four clean sheets in a row at home in the Premier League was October 2001.
Bertrand Traore has scored in his previous two games at Villa Park. The last player to score three consecutive Premier Leagues at Villa Park was Darren Bent in 2011.
David Moyes is undefeated in his last nine games against Aston Villa (W4, D5). Although he has only completed a Premier League double over Villa once, with Manchester United in 2013/14.
HOW TO FOLLOW
I CANNOT WATCH LIVE
Join fellow Villa supporters by discussing tonight’s game on our forum in our live match chat.
ON TV
Aston Villa v West Ham will be shown live in the UK on BT Sport 2.
PREDICTION
West Ham will be tough as they proved in the reversed encounter at the London Stadium in November. They will happily allow Villa to play and look to hurt us on the counter-attack. We will need to be clinical and solid at the back if we are to spoil David Moyes’ record against us.
Aston Villa 2-0 West Ham
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