At a Glance
Aston Villa return to the road on Monday to face West Ham United at the London Stadium.
Dean Smith's side were on the wrong side of a 2-1 scoreline last time out, with Brighton taking all three points last Saturday thanks to goals from Danny Welbeck and Solly March, despite Ezri Konsa's strike just after the break.
Despite a frustrating sequence of results on home soil, Villa have been faultless on the road so far, with five wins out of five in all competitions away from Villa Park.
West Ham have enjoyed a solid start to the season and sit in eighth place, with four wins from their nine Premier League games.
Stand-out results came against Wolverhampton Wanderers and Leicester City, who they beat 4-0 and 3-0 in successive weeks.
In addition to those impressive performances, they welcome Villa to the London Stadium having won back-to-back games without conceding a goal against Fulham and Sheffield United.
Standout Stats
Aston Villa have won their last two Premier League games in London, as many as they had in their previous 21 in the capital (D3 L16). They haven't won three consecutive top-flight games in London since February 1990.
Dean Smith's side have won three of their last four Premier League games played on a Monday (L1), including both such games this season without conceding. The Villans had only won three of their last 20 Premier League Monday games prior to this run (D6 L11).
Villa have won all three of their away league games this season – they’ve never won each of their first four on the road in a league campaign before.
We are looking to win four consecutive Premier League away games for the first time since a run of seven between November 2008 - February 2009. That run included a 1- 0 victory at West Ham.
Aston Villa (3) and West Ham (4) are the two sides to have made the fewest changes to their starting XIs in the Premier League this season.
Jack Grealish has won a foul in each Premier League game he’s featured in since the start of 2019/20, a run of 44 matches. The last English player to win a foul in as many consecutive Premier League appearances was Kevin Davies between October 2005 and August 2007 (59 in a row).
The Last Meeting
Villa's last visit to the London Stadium was a nerve-wracking one for all connected with the club, as the team fought to secure Premier League safety.
Jack Grealish scored a stunner which was cancelled out immediately by Andriy Yarmolenko's deflected effort.
A point was enough for Villa, as results elsewhere ensured a 17th-place finish in the Premier League for 2019/20 and survival at the expense of Watford and Bournemouth.
Team News
The hamstring injury suffered by Ross Barkley against Brighton will keep him out for "two or three weeks", with the severity of the problem not as bad as was first feared.
Frédéric Guilbert and Kortney Hause have both returned to training following injuries, but the trip to West Ham will come too soon for them.
Smith also hopes to have Keinan Davis back in full training on Sunday.
The Boss
“We have been very organised away from home and there is a strong work ethic and team spirit.
“I believe that there is more to come, that’s for sure.
"We both restarted [the 2019/20 season] with the threat of relegation, both survived and have both built on it, so it makes for a really intriguing game.
“They are very well organised and they look a threat.”
