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West Ham United v Aston Villa
Barclays Premier League
Venue: Upton Park
Date: Saturday, 2nd November 2013
West Ham's injury problems have worsened, with Matthew Taylor and Mladen Petric the latest casualties this week.
The re-signed Carlton Cole is not yet ready for a Premier League start, according to manager Sam Allardyce.
Aston Villa forward Gabriel Agbonlahor is unlikely to recover in time from the ankle injury he suffered during last weekend's defeat by Everton.
Left-backs Antonio Luna (hamstring) and Joe Bennett (back) are both sidelined.
MATCH PREVIEW
What a curious start to the season it has been for these two sides.
Both have recorded eye-catching wins - West Ham at Spurs,
Villa against Arsenal and Manchester City - but neither can find any consistency,
particularly at home.
From that point of view, Aston Villa may feel the more comfortable of the two teams going into this fixture.
Paul Lambert has won more away games with Villa than at home, with their counter-attacking
style better suited on the road.
Villa will maintain they have had a tough run of fixtures - having faced six of last season's top seven teams
in their first nine games - but you feel that, until their young side has played together for longer,
they will continue to be looking over their shoulder.
The same might be said for West Ham, who will be hard pressed to improve on last season's tenth-place finish.
The story of their current campaign revolves around the absence of forward Andy Carroll.
The resulting lack of a focal point has really hindered the Hammers.
Carlton Cole has been re-signed but is still building up his fitness,
and Ricardo Vaz Te is out for a while.
Sam Allardyce's side rely a lot on the midfield axis of Mark Noble and Kevin Nolan,
and we have yet to see the best of the wingers brought in by Allardyce, Matt Jarvis
and ex-Villa man Stewart Downing.
Villa's cause is helped by the fact they have just got their main striker - Christian Benteke - back from injury,
although Gabby Agbonlahor is likely to miss out.
This is a fixture that's produced few goals in recent times and I'm not expecting this occasion to be any different.
One thing's for sure, the losers will be looking downwards.
MATCH FACTS
Head-to-head
- West Ham beat Villa for only the third time in their last 12 attempts at home on the opening day of last season. Kevin Nolan scored the only goal.
Eight of the 17 Premier League meetings at Upton Park have ended in draws.
West Ham
- Stewart Downing and Carlton Cole have both previously played for Aston Villa.
The Hammers have lost their last three home matches. They have not suffered four consecutive home defeats since the 2005-06 season.
West Ham have never lost four of their first five top-flight home matches.
They have failed to score in five of their nine fixtures, the joint-worst record in the division.
However, only three clubs (Southampton, Tottenham and Chelsea) have conceded fewer goals than West Ham's tally of eight.
A third of their nine league games have ended 0-0 this season.
Aston Villa
- Christian Benteke has missed two penalties this season. There have only been six penalties missed in total in the top flight this term.
Villa have conceded the opening goal in seven of their Premier League fixtures this season, more than any other side.
They have only taken one point from the last three matches and failed to score in that time. Villa last went four successive league games without a goal between December 2009 and January 2010.
Paul Lambert has won more away league games (seven) as manager of Aston Villa than he has at Villa Park (six).
Lambert's side have won five, drawn two and lost just two of their last nine league away games.
Last edited by Jiggs on Sat 02 Nov 2013, 11:22 am; edited 1 time in total
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