At A Glance
Aston Villa Women return from October's international break aiming to maintain their unbeaten start to the season this weekend.
The Hammers visit Poundland Bescot Stadium on Saturday, with kick-off set for 12:30pm.
Villa won't have wanted the most recent international break to come, having recorded league wins against Manchester City and Leicester City before prevailing in a Conti Cup shootout over Manchester United.
Carla Ward's side are on a high and will be eyeing three points against this weekend's opponents.
Watch Villa Women in the WSL on Saturday!
Tickets available at the turnstiles until kick-off
This weekend's visitors to Poundland Bescot Stadium are West Ham United.
The Hammers, led by first-year manager Paul Konchesky, have emerged victorious in two of their opening four games of the 2022/23 season.
A curtain-raising win over Everton and a shootout success against London City Lionesses have been sandwiched by defeats to Manchester United and Chelsea.
Top-flight encounters against West Ham have been particularly close since our promotion in 2020.
In four meetings with the Hammers, the aggregate scoreline is just 3-2 in favour of Saturday's visitors.
Six current members of Villa’s first team squad have previously played for West Ham.
Standout Stats
- Aston Villa have won their first two Barclays WSL matches this season, beating Man City and Leicester. It’s the first time they’ve ever won consecutive Barclays WSL games.
- Aston Villa are averaging three goals per game in the Barclays WSL this season, netting six goals so far. Last season, they averaged just 0.6 per goals (13 in 22), with the Villans already 46% of the way to their goal tally from last season.
- Aston Villa’s Kenza Dali has created six chances for the Villans in the Barclays WSL this season, the most of any player. She’s also completed the most passes in the opposition’s half (39) and played the most passes into the box (16) of any Villa player.
- Rachel Daly is Aston Villa’s joint-top scorer in the Barclays Women’s Super League since the start of last season with three goals, despite only making two appearances for the club in the competition in this time.
- Aston Villa’s Olivia McLoughlin turns 18 on the day of this game – she has made 21 Barclays WSL appearances before turning 18, with only Jessica Carter (26) and Lauren Hemp (22) playing more times before their 18th birthday in Barclays WSL history.
The Last Meeting
Aston Villa Women lost 2-1 to West Ham United at Poundland Bescot Stadium when these two sides met in February.
Abbey-Leigh Stringer and Kateřina Svitková scored either side of Alisha Lehmann’s first-half penalty to send United back to London with all three points.
For Villa, the result was ultimately a disappointing one having seen previous performances against Manchester City and Chelsea warrant a more positive outcome.
Team News
Carla Ward confirmed during Friday morning's press conference that Emily Gielnik will be out of action until the festive period.
The striker came away from international duty having injured her calf and is set to miss Villa's upcoming slate of fixtures between now and Christmas.
Elsewhere, Villa remain without Meaghan Sargeant, Remi Allen, Simone Magill and Ruesha Littlejohn.
The Boss
“Everyone’s getting excited but I have to remind them we’re only two [league] games in. The message is clear that we’ve won nothing. We’ve got off to a good start but there’s still a lot of work to do.”
Carla Ward
