Team news, stats and prediction ahead of Aston Villa vs West Ham in the Premier League on Sunday; kick-off 4.30pm.
Team news
Aston Villa goalkeeper Emi Martinez is expected to play against West Ham after returning from Argentina following a family emergency involving his father.
Martinez flew back to his homeland after Villa's Premier League defeat at Arsenal to be at his dad's bedside, but he is back in England and trained with the rest of the Villa squad on Friday, having done some training at the national team's headquarters while in Argentina.
Villa are monitoring the fitness of Leon Bailey as he nears a first Premier League start, while Keinan Davis is fit again. However, Morgan Sanson and Jaden Philogene-Bidace will both miss out through illness.
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West Ham will welcome back Declan Rice and Michail Antonio after the pair were rested for the Carabao Cup penalty shoot-out win over Manchester City.
Vladimir Coufal is fit after a groin problem and Alex Kral is also available after a period of self-isolation. Ryan Fredericks is now the only injury absentee.
How to follow
Aston Villa vs West Ham is live on Sky Sports Premier League from 4pm; kick-off 4.30pm. Sky Sports customers can watch in-game clips in the live match blog on the Sky Sports website and app. Highlights will also be published on the Sky Sports digital platforms and the Sky Sports Football YouTube channel shortly after the final whistle.
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Last time out...
Jones Knows prediction
"Qualifying for European football is very much part of our strategic plan," Aston Villa's chief executive Christian Purslow said in pre-season.
That may sound a tall order for a club in just their third full season back in the Premier League, but owners Nassef Sawiris and Wes Edens are ambitious - outlined by a net spend of over £200m in the transfer market since promotion. Performances like the one at Arsenal and the collapse against Wolves certainly don't bode well for Dean Smith, who must be a runner in the next manager to be sacked market at 14/1 with Sky Bet.
A repeat of the Arsenal showing here and West Ham, who are a better team than the Gunners according to all known metrics, will roll over Villa. As David Moyes said after the win over Spurs, he expects them to be challenging for the top-four this season and the performance metrics suggest he's right to have that lofty target.
Since the start of last season, their haul of 82 points is only bettered by Manchester City, Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United - a statistic backed up by all the expected goals data. West Ham, helped by having arguably the best midfielder in the Premier League on current form in Declan Rice, are among the elite, yet, they are not priced up like it by the markets in games such as this one. The 6/4 for an away win is too big to ignore.
SCORE PREDICTION: 0-2 | BETTING ANGLE: West Ham to win (6/4 with Sky Bet)
Premier League Preview: Redknapp's Tottenham vs Man Utd verdict | Will West Ham's rise continue? | Problems for Norwich, Everton
Pete Smith is joined by Jamie Redknapp, Oliver Yew and Simeon Gholam to preview another bumper weekend of Premier League action.
PART 1 | Jamie Redknapp previews the Saturday Night Football clash between Tottenham and Manchester United. Will United bounce back from their humiliating 5-0 defeat to Liverpool last weekend?
PART 2 | Pete Smith is joined by Oliver Yew and Simeon Gholam to look ahead to Aston Villa vs West Ham on Super Sunday. West Ham's season continues to get better and better after their Carabao Cup victory against Man City. Will that good run continue at Villa Park?
PART 3 | Norwich vs Leeds on Super Sunday and Wolves vs Everton on Monday Night Football: Pressure building on Daniel Farke, Rafael Benitez looking for solutions.
Opta stats
- Aston Villa are winless in their last six Premier League meetings with West Ham (D3 L3) since a 1-0 home win in May 2015
- West Ham won this exact fixture 3-1 last season and are looking to pick up consecutive away league wins against Aston Villa for the first time since a run of three between 1965 and 1967.
- Aston Villa have lost each of their last three Premier League games, last having a longer such run in the competition in February/March 2020 (4).
- West Ham have won 17 points from their nine Premier League games this season (W5 D2 L2), their best start to a season since 2015-16 under Slaven Bilic (also had 17 pts). The Hammers have only won six of their opening 10 games in five previous top-flight seasons and once in the Premier League, the aforementioned 2015-16 campaign.
- Aston Villa have lost all three of their Premier League games in October 2021 - the last time they played as many as four league games in a month and lost every single one was in April 2016 (lost 5/5).
- West Ham are unbeaten in their last seven away Premier League matches (W5 D2), last having a longer unbeaten run on the road in the top-flight between August and November 1986 (eight in a row).
- Aston Villa striker Danny Ings has faced West Ham in the Premier League more often without ever scoring than he has any other opponent (9 games). Indeed, he's also ended on the losing side in eight of his nine appearances against the Hammers in the top-flight, drawing the other.
- After a 12-game winless run against Aston Villa in the Premier League between 2006 and 2012 (D8 L4), West Ham boss David Moyes has won five of his last seven against them in the competition (D2).
- Only Mohamed Salah (10 goals, 5 assists) has been directly involved in more Premier League goals than West Ham's Michail Antonio this season (6 goals, 3 assists). Since David Moyes returned to the club in January 2020, Antonio has 25 goals and 10 assists in 49 appearances, 14 more goal involvements than any other Hammers player.
- Jacob Ramsey netted his first Premier League goal for Aston Villa in their 3-1 defeat to Arsenal, aged 20 years and 147 days, their youngest top-flight scorer since Jack Grealish in September 2015 (20y 3d). The last player as young as Ramsey on the day of this game (20y 156d) to score in consecutive Premier League games for Villa was Gabriel Agbonlahor in January 2007 (20y 99d).