Aston Villa travel to Upton Park this weekend to face 15th place West Ham. Last weekend, Aston Villa lost 2-0 to Everton at home while West Ham managed to snatch a 0-0 draw against Swansea. Goals have been a problem for both sides, West Ham are without a fit striker with Andy Carroll still ruled out injured, Petric out, Vaz Te injured himself last week and newly re-signed forward Carlton Cole isn’t match fit. Aston Villa meanwhile, have failed to score a goal in their last three games. Both teams have been suffering from a rather inconsistent season. West Ham have managed to beat Cardiff and Tottenham this year, but have struggled to beat Stoke and Hull. Aston Villa have too managed to pull of marvelous victories against Arsenal and Man. City but have struggled to win at home.
Thus it could appear that Aston Villa have an advantage coming into this fixture, Aston Villa play better on the counter and have managed to pick up more points away than at home. Lambert will have to shuffle his team, especially in the left-back position with both Joe Bennett and Antonio Luna out injured. Whilst, Sam Allardyce may have to play with 6 midfielders against Aston Villa.
Team News:
West Ham are without winger Matthew Taylor who obtained a knock against Burnley. Petric is also out injured for a couple weeks with an aggravated muscle. Ricardo Vaz Te dislocated his shoulder against Swansea last weekend. Carlton Cole is unlikely to start against Aston Villa this weekend as he isn’t match fit. But should be able to come on from the bench.
Paul Lambert will be without a trio of players, Gabriel Agbonlahor (ankle) and Antonio Luna (thigh) suffered injuries last weekend and will miss out. Joe Bennett has been ruled out with a back injury.
Match Facts:
West Ham United have lost only two of their last 13 Barclays Premier League home games against Aston Villa (W4 D7).
The Villans have lost just one of their last six away games, winning three and drawing two.
West Ham will be trying to avoid a fourth successive top-flight home defeat. This last happened in January 2006.
Stewart Downing has created 16 chances without a single assist this season.
Aston Villa are looking to keep three successive clean sheets away from home for the first time since March 2010.
If Christian Benteke fails to score in this game it will be the longest spell without a Premier League goal since last November (four games).
Predicted Lineups:
Jääskeläinen
Demel-Rat-Reid-Tomkins
Nolan-Noble
Downing-Morrison-Diame
Maiga
Benteke-Kozak
Tonev-Delph-Westwood-Bacuna
Baker-Clark-Vlaar-Lowton
Guzan
Prediction:
West Ham 0-1 Aston Villa
I reckon Aston Villa can win this game. Lambert needs to ensure that he takes this opportunity to have a go at West Ham. We know that they struggle to score goals, and as a result, we don’t need to play too defensively. With Agbonlahor out, I reckon we’ll see a different formation against the Hammers. I think Bacuna will be pushed into the midfield and Lowton will come back into the side this week. I’m just unsure who will partner Benteke, it’s going to be either Weimann or Kozak.
Is it just me or does anyone else think Paul Lambert is starting to turn into Alex McLeish?
Iv been saying it for ages we are def playing more anti football now. What happened to out scoring the opposition. Wev gone from not being able to keep a clean sheet to not bring able to score. Just awful I’m sure the lamberk and Lerner apologists will be on soon wanking over a 0.0 with west ham and saying how much Wev improved coz we lost 1.0 last season pathetic.
Couldn’t agree more. Lambert seems to have abandoned his supposed “attacking, passing” football philosophy for a bi-pass midfield philosophy. We’re turning into boring, boring Villa. We should be going at teams like Hull and West Ham and trying to hurt them with the intensity we showed towards the end of last season. What is going on?! Why such negative tactics?! This was the approach that nearly got us the drop under McLeish.
So true I could understand it Benteke was out but when he plays we surely have to have a go especially away from home at west ham
Surely nobody can now claim we have improved…!!! I for one gave us a chance but now its looking extremely bleak.
A game which is seen as a game we should win….so….Lambert plays a flat back 5, 3 defensive holding midfielders and 2 strikers, one of which has had a torrid season so far.
We got the result Lambert setup for, but why……Id rather lose 4-3 one week and win 3-2 the next etc etc and watch a decent game.
This was by far the worst game of our season so far…..with a looooooong way to go
We look worse than we did at the end of last season. We aren’t playing good football anymore. I would rather see us lose and try playing quality football than play this dire shit,
I would say its on a par with hull game. It seems like lambert just sets us up not to get beat anymore. We won’t go down as we will always pick up a point here and there and there are teams like palace, Fulham etc who are worse. Though if they get a new manager and a couple of decent signings in jan then who knows look at what Southampton have done since jan. Team of the year IMO
good defence display but boy was it at the expense of attacking threat.
slightly better 2nd half coupke of good chances for tekkers great save at the end for guzan.
on reflection a decent away point.
Oh,and how poor is Westwood and Kozak……Both are laughable. Championship teams wouldn’t part with cash for either of em
Nm its a disgrace 4 games without goals lambert needs to go he spent how much on forwards and we cant score no more spl managers Lerner please they crap
Wow ok. So these ratings may be influenced by my frustration, disappointment and well anger. But the only thing that kept me awake in that match was my Eden Valley Riesling.
Villa Player Ratings.
Guzan 8.5. What can I say, read the ball well, collected many crosses and made a couple of important saves, well played.
Vlaar. 7.5 Didn’t do a lot wrong, cleared the ball constantly, made a couple of important tackles and intercepts. Can’t say it was a difficult afternoon.
Baker 7.0 Solid game, similar to Vlaar.
Clarke 6.5 Made a couple of silly errors giving the ball away in poor positions but like Vlaar and Clarke had a generally easy afternoon with poor West Ham attack.
Lowton 5.0 The only reason he scores a pass mark is the cross he made onto Bentekes head. Other than that did nothing and was constantly beaten, infact why am I giving him a pass mark?
El Ahmadi 5.5 Was ok, looked threatening early, works hard but has a poor touch and poor vision.
Westwood 5.5 Did his job ok but had no real influence on the game, again.
Sylla 5.0 I actually thought he was very average, lost the ball, poor tackling and struggled overall. No vision and cannot pass the ball.. well fullstop.
Bacuna 5.5 I like Bacuna as a player and got into good positions early but the rest of our midfield are too shit to realise or execute a simple ball. After that he had to spend his time helping in defence. But he was beaten by Downing, however playing well out of position.
Weimann 6.5 A threat in the first half before injuring his hamstring. Should have scored.
Benteke 7.0 The only reason we had any chance of scoring in the second half, though should have scored from Lowtons cross.
Kozak 2.0 Did anyone actually see him do anything? Why we didn’t bring on Helenius is beyond me, in a counter attacking game.
Talking Points: Formation? What the hell Lambert. Tactics? What the hell Lambert. Midfield? Do we have one?
Villa Player Of the Match: Guzan
On second though I’d give Sylla a 4.5, Westwood 5.0 and Bacuna 6.0
Agree with all that Darren. The only positive for me was Guzan and at long last vlaar is looking the real deal and I never thought I’d say that. Benteke had 2 chances and should of scored the first one but secind was a decent save. Other than that he was marked out the game. I am fed up of people saying we are a better team playing better football under lambert. We are no better than under mcleish except that we don’t pay stupid wages.
Well, that was dire. Even worse than the display at Hull, which I didnt think was possible.
Without Delph, we have the worst midfield in the PL. We basically played 8 at the back with 2 up front today. I have no idea why we signed Kozak, he seems a total waste of money. Our only chance of scoring today was from a Weimann breakaway, or Benteke doing something on his own.
No goals in 4 games says it all. And yes, some may argue that it was a point away from home…but supposedly, our away form is our strong point!! That is just laughable.
From a positive point…the bus didnt move and we didnt concede. Thought Vlaar played well. Lowton showed that he is the only decent crosser of the ball at the club, and Bacuna shoed just how versatile he is. Everything else was rubbish.
Agree benno vlaar improved but lambert dosnt trust the defence even against a toothless forward line v west ham which is why he is packing the midfield and parking the bus. This is hampering us going forward
We are shit but wont go down cause palace, sunderland and norwich are really shit which will make randy very happy, sky money rolling in for very little outlay.
That was absolutely woeful. Agree with the above comments, if Mcleish had been in charge for that negative, toothless display he’d have been getting flak from everyone but because it’s lamberk he gets away with it.
The midfield is farcical, and the 3 playing there today were all Lamberk signings, tells you everything you need to know about our clueless manager.
Sure, we might well have enough to scrape survival but come on, is that really acceptable for AVFC. In Mr Lerner’s eyes it seems the answer is yes. I just don’t know where we go from here, so I have concluded that the club has no future
Spot on if we had mcleish or Bruce as a manager we would be screaming for them to go. Double standards
Lol this is my favorite overreaction of today
We need to make a stand enough is enough we want our villa back
Make a stand against what?
Lambert- OK you sack him and bring in who? There isn’t a decent manager who would touch Villa given the resources and stature at this moment. The combination of high expectations and low funding makes it a lose lose situation.
Lerner and the board- Your forgetting it is his club. He runs it how he sees fit, its clear Randy has no ambition of challenging the top sides and does not have the funding to do this on a consistent basis.
Randy and Faulkner don’t give a shit about the fans, making a stand whatever you do won’t change a damn thing. Aston Villa are now synonymous with mediocrity, its just the way it is.
Just accept it and move on
Fuck off Lerner, the Villa is OURS,
What’s happened to you Langford?
Stop going to games thats how you make a stand a empty villa park will make them sit up
Won’t make any difference as they’ve hit their season ticket target with all their pr bullshit that we will be a better team yawn and like it or not Lerner has his sky money now which is millions more than he would ever get from us.
I think it would be in every ones best interest for the negative fans to stay home
– they don’t have to watch the crap football and the players can get in with trying improve without the stick and shit atmosphere
If the negative fans stayed at home vp would be deserted. That team is lucky we bother to watch them at all the dross anti football we serve up every week
Cant be bothered wasting 6 hours next week to watch that pile of shit…..wish I hadnt renewed my ST. Fell for the spin and I (foolishly) expected serious investment after 3 years of relegation battles.
False dawn…….false promises…..Fuck off Lerner the Villa is OURS
And I am NOT complaining about the results, just the shit way of playing. I was happier last season with the ‘we will outscore the opposition’ approach. This season is boring me to death….fuck off Lerner the Villa is OURS
Everyone needs to return their season tickets and demand their money back why are football fans so chicken shit if you dont like it dont buy there are better things to spend your money on
Don’t think st are refundable that’s why. Unfortunately Wev got years and years of mediocrity under Lerner now