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.
The knives will be out for lambert this weekend mark my words west ham will win and we wont score again
I share your worries Villa1996, I have no confidence on tomorrow’s game with the results of late, 2-1 West Ham hope I’m wrong.
If Villa lose, Lambert will lose the fans. This is a game that we have to win, if Villa beat Hull it would’ve made us a little bit more comfortable. But we lack an attacking threat and he’s not dropping out of form players.
*Gulp, a bit nervous for tomorrow now
There is no way lambert will be sacked even if we lose the next 2 games. He will have at least till Xmas.
Of coarse the knifes will be out, they are out already even though we have 10 points from 9 games after having the hardest start to the league than any other team in the league, statistically that is fact! So how much better these fans expect us to be i honestly have no idea would winning 1 more game or 2 or 3 be enough? Im not happy with everything this season, tactics player selection even transfers but its way to early to panic especially because results have been as good as any rational person could expect, 2-1 to da villa i think. Will that appease the relentless idiotic calling for heads? I doubt it, everybody can’t have brains i suppose. UTV
Kerryvillan, you seem to think your the most inteligent assessor of Villa’s so called season to date, and that doubting fans that can see problems are in you’re view idiots that’s calling for heads, well in my experience I can assure you people that just except inept football that’s dished up to date will have egg on their face and just lay low when it becomes a fact we are in trouble. Time will tell Kerryvillan and we have many people or fans of Villa showing large concerns of state of play to date. I hope I’m wrong.
Sure everyone is concerned and worried about our form, but those calling for Lambert’s head are still very much a minority. Just because a few people take over a blog or spam twitter it doesn’t mean there is an anti-moment afoot. Kerryvillan is right though, we should show some patience. Looking forward our next 6 games are – West Ham, Cardiff, West Brom, Sunderland, Southampton, and Fulham. Personally, even with our current form, these are all winnable games and come January Villa could easily be sitting comfortably in the top 10.
Most villa fans I know want lambert out. But on the other hand want him to stay as Lerner will only lumber us with another useless pile of dross so what’s the point.
The second statement is what I agree with the most. If we lose Lambert we’ll probably get Halloway or someone worse.
I’m going 1-0 Villa but I’m very nervous
guzan
lowton Clark vlaar baker
sylla
bacuna. tonev
. ahamdi
. benteke kozak
for some reason i feel delph may play better comming of the bench for last half hour.
4-1-2-1-2? Am I the only one that thinks Delph wouldn’t do that badly in the AM position?
Still, I highly doubt Lambert will choose this formation. But, if some of you remember this was our first formation at the start of the last season
I can’t call this one.
one one hand, its away, we have only lost one of our last 6 away games
West ham are struggling at home
Benteke should be closer to match sharpness
on the other, we are inconsistent to say the least. Didn’t create much against hull
West ham are unlikely to have at us with no fit strikers which may render our counter attack less effective again.
I think west ham will struggle to score against what will likely be Cb dominated back 4
i fancy benteke to cause a bit of trouble
eeek 1-0 Villa?
predicted line up
…………..Guzan
Lowton Vlaar Clark Baker
…Bacuna Westwood Delph
Weimann Benteke Tonev
Lowton will have license to roam forward
If Lambert doesn’t go the 4-3-3 route.
I think we might see tonev or helenius start behind benteke or benteke wiemann in a 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-1-2 variation
He has mentioned fringe players getting their chances this week
I would put
Lowton, sylla, tonev, helenius, bowery in that group
I’ve read that he has already picked him team. Tonev will feature for sure, I think Lowton and Sylla might be up for a return.
Still, I wouldn’t be too surprised to see Bowery making that ‘shock’ appearance.
I like your 4-3-3 formation idea, but after looking at some stat’s we’ve actually only won 1 game using that formation. We’ve lost 3 times with 4-3-3.
I think we’ve been successful with the formation that we used against Norwich. Same thing please against the Hammers
I don’t particularly fancy the 4-3-3 i was trying to predict what lamberts line-up and tactics!
Personally, i wouldn’t mind seeing two up top with an AM behind but i don’t think we have the AM!
(tonev? helenius? )
delph would be interesting there but he hasn’t shown any killer passes or eye for goal all season. It might be a bit much for us to expect him to turn that on all of a sudden
I think helenius is the best option for us in the am berth – but he hasn’t justified a starting place in Lamberts eyes.
I would like to see us try to take more possession and try and pick their defense apart with movement and killer passess but i think someone else here nailed it on the head when they suggested that Wham will flood the midfield. they probably will considering they don’t have any strikers
It may mean that bypassing that midfield is the best plan .. which will mean 4-3-3 direct on the break or otherwise could be the order of the day
we shall see
Will be the same ol lineup minus Gabby & Luna and will draw 0-0. Westwood to get wound up by Nolan/Noble and get sent off.!! Now theres a bet……
West Ham are solid and strong, particularly in midfield and not easy to break down. So we are pretty much relying on some magic from Benteke as we all know the rest of the offensive players in the team are either woefully out of form or just utter garbage.
A entirely predictable 1-0 loss for me and more mumbling from lamberk
could go any which way such is our inconsistent form, really hard to predict although I fancy west ham to flood the midfield and stifle any movement but as has been said without any strikers I don’t fancy them to push forward either, this game could be dire. hope not of course, like I say really cant call this one but we desperately need a win I feel.
Either way I think this game will have very little chances and might be a little bit boring. If Villa come out as winners I wouldn’t care one bit though
We can play the aston villa guessing game how many shots and possision will the other team get 20 shots 70% my guess
Imo got o-o writen all over it, we couldn’t score in a brothel and they have no fit strikers. As some have posted lose this and i think its the begining of the end for pl.
I highly doubt Randy will sack Lambert. He’ll stick with him until the end of the season. If he is sacked, I can see Benteke leaving that same summer.
I reckon he’ll turn it around. I want to see continuity at Aston Villa and frankly, he’s the best manager we can realistically attract.
No point in getting rid if lambert even if we lost 25.0 today. Like u said we would only get a holloway or pullis. If we are in bottom 3 at Xmas then I think he may go but as long as we are out of bottom 3 lambert is safe for another year as he has fulfilled his requirements.
lambert wont go anywhere until the end of the season at the earliest unless hes planning to follow the dicanio book of man management any time soon n the only way I could see him being sacked is if we got relegated.
as for the goal drought thing, we’ve failed to score in 3 games without our star striker for 1/2 of those games and just coming back from a lengthy lay off for the other half, 2 of the games were against the tightest defences in the league, spurs and hull, yes hull! only conceded one at home in all competitions this season. the eveton game we made plenty of chances should’ve scored at least a couple, just one of them ones.
not expecting many chances today so 3-1 villa then 😉
I fancy our chances tbh, at Villa Park I’d have it down as a certain defeat such is our pathetic home form but away we’ve been pretty decent IMO.
Fancy us to nick it 0-1, Benteke of course to get the winner, who else.
It’s amazing how deluded some fans are we didnt have our star striker so that’s why we havent scored in 3 games that just proves a) our other striker are shit b) our midfield is shit and c) our manager releys on one player benteke may as well be manager lambert out to think some fans think it’s ok to lose to everton and Tottenham we were on a par with them only 3 years ago and that’s ok Lerner a genius his lowered fans exptancion to the point of its ok as long as we stay up villa should always be challenging for the top not mid table or lower this avfc not Wigan some fans need to get that in their head so thats why I say lerner and lambert out
Well said villa 1996 it’s disgraceful how most villa fans are now happy with just staying up. Having said that I really can’t see us losing today bacuna in midfield which is good though lowton back. Think we will win 2.1
zzzzzzzzzzzz
Excellent start by Villa. Dominating the game. El Ahmadi wasting an opportunity when should have made a ball through to benteke or weimann and weimann almost scoring only to be denied by the keeper.
West Ham have taken control of the game for the last 10 mins. 3 clear chances for them inc one for downing hit straight at guzan. Still 0-0
Dear oh dear looks like lamberk is trying to give us another unwanted record go a year without scoring this time. Awful he has to go.
good grief, the game is as dire as thought it might be 🙁
Well its a tale of two poor teams. Weimann with the best chances of the half. Should have scored one and arguably fouled for the second. West ham continually crossing in balls but seemingly only to vlaar clarke and baker who consistently make simple clearances. Early in the half bacuna found himself alone on the left in acres of space but no one would switch play to him for whatever reason just showing how poor we are at times with vision and or skill to execute. Bacuna struggling with a knock now. 0-0 half time.
Weimann just fell over it wasn’t a foul at all. How many times will our midfield get the ball and smash it forward long or on the ground only for it to come straight back and give West Ham possession. No creativity at all and will be our downfall this season, although we will stay up and just be left to think what might have been!
I’m not sure what is worse, the formation or the performance?!! Our midfield is non-existent, we have no width and we are creating nothing. Aimless long balls up front in the hope Weimann might get on to them. If West Ham had any strikers, they would be winning.
Agree benno if carol was fit wed have been beat today. Two dire teams set up not to lose. Mcleish it’s just like watching mcleish!!