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West Ham v Aston Villa Preview | Team News, Stats & Key Men

One of the most complemented sides of the season faces one of the most criticised – ignoring the first 4 matches which seem an age away now – sides on Saturday as West Ham host a limping Aston Villa.

Talk last season was that Sam Allardyce was nearing the end of his time at West Ham with poor results and unattractive style of play seeing fans turned on the experienced manager. Discussions with the board in the summer of building a more attractive side – ahead of schedule in Allardyce’s books – was a necessary for this campaign and surprisingly for many it was worked out so far. West Ham currently sit in 5th place with 17 points after a comeback draw at Stoke and a very impressive home win over Manchester City. It will be interesting to see whether West Ham can keep their form going over the following months and busy Christmas period, but they have a very good chance of doing that this weekend.

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Aston Villa have been one of the strangest clubs in the last few years, either being in good form and drawing plaudits or being in a useless run of form and no hope of turning it around. Unfortunately for Villa fans they are currently suffering the latter with 6 straight defeats and only 1 goal to their name in that time. You could argue that, bar QPR, they had an extremely hard run of fixtures and while they is true the performances in those matches is what fans are disappointed with. Plus, they lost to QPR.

Key Players

Stewart Downing

The recalled England winger has returned to the form that Aston Villa fans saw on many occasions when he was a player in the Midlands with Downing the second most creative player in the league with 28 chances created.

The drive and determination followed by an excellent cross for West Ham’s first goal last weekend could cause plenty of problems for Aston Villa if repeated and take advantage of the number of free kicks Villa gave away around the area. That was his 4th assist of the season and his second goal of the campaign came later in the match.

Ron Vlaar

After an impressively surprising many at World Cup with his performances, the ‘hangover’ players can suffer following an international tournament seems to have affected the Aston Villa defender.

With his club needing him after a terrible run of form, it is time for their time for their captain to step up and get back to his best. Strong in the air, Vlaar will be important to deal with the qualities of Enner Valencia who has shown this season that he is one of the best headers of the ball in the league. Making an average of 6 clearances per match (36 in total), Vlaar has been dealing with way more than his midfield should allow, but as captain and an experienced player he needs to be vocal on the pitch to ensure it doesn’t happen again.

Interesting Statistics

After losing their opening two home matches, West Ham have won their last 3 matches at Upton Park and scoring 7 goals in the process.

The increase in attacking flair and goals has had an effect at the back for West Ham with side only keeping 1 clean sheet so far after 14 last season.

Andres Weimann’s goal against Tottenham last weekend was Aston Villa‘s first Premier League goal for 547 minutes.

A worrying problem for Paul Lambert last weekend would have been his midfield. The trio of Westwood, Cleverley, and Sanchez only won 1 of 17 attempted tackles between them – a disastrous success rate of 6%.

Betting Tip

Given his performances this season, the amount of chances his created – noted in the key players section – and amount of crosses (25) made for Valencia and Sakho, Stewart Downing is valued at 4.03 with TailorBet to get an assist against Aston Villa.

Team News

Winston Reid and Diafra Sakho are expected to return to the side following injuries suffered in the last teo matches. Andy Carroll could also make a return following a series of bad luck on the injury front, but is likely to only be a place on the bench if he does.

Aston Villa are still without a key player in their midfield as Fabian Delph out for the remainder of the calendar year. Alan Hutton is also unavailable for Villa until after the international break at least.

Prediction

If West Ham can recreate the performance of their last home match against Manchester City, particularly their midfield, then the London team will make it another punishing trip to London for Aston Villa.

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