West Ham – Villa; Not particularly hopeful, but you never know.

I’m a bit late with this one, so will keep it brief.

This is a really tough test, as many sides have found out this season, as West Ham have been playing consistently very well. They’re very strong on set-pieces, especially with their heading too, so our marking and aerial defence will have to be at it’s best.

Straight to squad news and nothing has changed, with only Nakamba not training.

As for West Ham, Jared Bowen limped off last week and missed their Europa tie midweek, so might be doubtful.
Vladimir Coufal and Angelo Ogbonna are definitely out and Andriy Yarmolenko has been excused from playing for the last two games, so maybe won’t play either.

I think Steven Gerrard would like to play the same team that got the convincing win at Leeds, but would imagine he’s going to have to make at least a couple of changes purely to rest any players who might be feeling it.
I still don’t understand why players can’t play twice a week, even if the last game was only on Thursday, but there you go.

I’d like to think we can win this and you never know, we might.
But I have to be realistic in hoping for a draw, which would be a very good result.
We lost 2-1 at home last time we played them, but Konsa got sent off, which gave them the advantage.
Mind you, we can never seem to take advantage when we have an opposing player sent off, but that’s a different issue.

I’m going for a 1-1 draw.

UTV!