At A Glance
Aston Villa enter the home straight of their Barclays WSL campaign when they begin their final three top flight fixtures against West Ham United on Sunday.
Carla Ward’s squad are still in the fight for a top-six finish, although they lost 3-0 to Chelsea last time out.
Villa are winless in three but will be aiming to finish the campaign on a strong note.
West Ham have struggled to find any inconcistency across the 23/24 season, currently sitting in 11th position with few games remaining.
The Hammers have only three league wins to their name and are winless since a 2-1 triumph over Arsenal in February.
Rehanne Skinner's team, who are led by top scorer Viviane Asseyi, were thrashed by Manchester City last time out.
Standout Stats
Villa failed to win their first five WSL meetings with West Ham United (D3 L2) but have won each of the last two, both away from home. We could complete a league double over the Hammers in the Women’s Super League for the first time.
Villa have scored in each of their last six home WSL games, whilst they’ve never scored in seven successive home outings in the competition.
Only Manchester City (4) have received more red cards than Villa (3) in the Women’s Super League this season; we had never previously had a player sent off in their previous three campaigns in the competition (63 games).
Rachel Daly has netted seven goals in the WSL this season, including a 92nd minute winning goal in the reverse fixture against West Ham back in November. However, of the 24 players in the competition to score at least five goals this season, only four hold a worse conversion rate than Daly (13.5%).
The Last Meeting
West Ham came away with all three points when these sides met at Poundland Bescot Stadium in October 2022.
Dagný Brynjarsdóttir and Honoka Hayashi struck in the opening 15 minutes to hand the Hammers are commanding lead.
The visitors then withstood a lifeline goal from Kenza Dali, as well as a late red card for Hawa Cissoko, to hold on and take the points home with them.
The Boss
“If anyone’s ever watched an Aston Villa v West Ham game, it is never simple. There’s always so much happening. They’re resolute. Rehanne [Skinner]’s got them very well organised. They’re dogged. They’re wholehearted. We’ve had really good games against them in the last couple of years and it’s always been tight. We expect a tough test.”
Carla Ward
