At A Glance
Aston Villa will be hunting a fourth straight Premier League win when they take to the pitch at London Stadium to play West Ham United on Sunday afternoon.
Steven Gerrard’s team have scored nine goals and conceded none during a three-game winning run, comfortably seeing off Leeds United 3-0 on Thursday night.
It’s a streak that’s propelled the team to ninth in the table, leaving them nine points behind this weekend’s opponents.
West Ham are looking to pick themselves up after a 1-0 Europa League defeat at the hands of Sevilla in Spain on Thursday.
The result was their third straight loss in all competitions, including a narrow defeat against Liverpool at Anfield last time out in the league.
However, the Hammers have great recent form against Villa after winning the past three meetings between the sides.
Standout Stats
West Ham have won each of their last three league games against Aston Villa, their longest winning run against them since a run of six between 1964 and 1967.
Aston Villa are winless in their last six Premier League away games against West Ham (D3 L3), failing to score on four occasions in that run since a 2-1 victory in April 2011.
The last five league matches between West Ham and Aston Villa have seen West Ham score, in this order: no goals, once, twice, three times and four times. Should West Ham score exactly five goals in this match, it will be the first time in English league history that a side has progressed from no goals to five goals in a specific fixture while adding one more goal in each match.
Aston Villa have won just 21% of their Premier League games in London (W31 D46 L74). Of the 12 teams to have played at least 100 away games in the capital in the competition, only Southampton (20%) have a lower win rate than the Villans.
West Ham have alternated between not winning (D2 L2) and winning (W4) in their last eight Premier League home games, beating Wolves 1-0 last time out at the London Stadium. They last won back-to- back home league games in October/November, which were also their only two victories in games immediately following a European match this term.
Aston Villa have lost five of their six Sunday matches in the Premier League this season, with the exception being a 2-1 home win against Leicester in December. The Villans have lost all three such matches away from home this term.
West Ham are one of just two sides – along with Liverpool – to have scored in 100% of their Premier League home games this season. Overall, the Hammers have scored in their last 15 Premier League home games, last having a longer such run in the top-flight between October 1985 and January 1987 (27 games).
On his only previous appearance at the London Stadium in the Premier League, Aston Villa’s Philippe Coutinho scored twice and assisted another in a 4-0 victory for Liverpool in May 2017.
West Ham’s Michail Antonio has failed to score in his last eight Premier League appearances, last having a longer such run between November 2019 and February 2020 (9 games).
Aston Villa striker Danny Ings has faced West Ham more often than any other side without scoring in the Premier League (9 games). He’s also been on the losing side in eight of his nine appearances against the Hammers in the competition (D1).
The Last Meeting
Aston Villa were soundly beaten by West Ham at Villa Park in October.
The hosts trailed 2-1 at the break before Ezri Konsa received a red card early in the second half.
And the Hammers wrapped up the points through goals from Pablo Fornals and Jarrod Bowen.
Team News
Aston Villa came through their win at Leeds unscathed, meaning Marvelous Nakamba remains their only injury absentee.
Jarrod Bowen limped out of the Hammers’ last league outing and missed their Europa League tie in midweek.
Vladimir Coufal and Angelo Ogbonna will miss out, while Andriy Yarmolenko has been granted personal leave from their last two matches.
The Boss
“It’ll be tough because he’s created a really tough team to play against, a very effective team. I know how his teams set-up from all the challenges we had against Everton back in the day, they were always well drilled and honest in how they went about their work. I’ve managed to meet David a few times and he’s a real top guy, a very humble guy. I’ve got nothing but praise for the job he’s done at West Ham and that’s why it’s going to be a very tough game for us.”
Steven Gerrard
