At A Glance
Aston Villa welcome West Ham to Villa Park on Wednesday night as they go in search of consecutive Premier League wins.
A staunch defensive performance and a Ross Barkley header yielded a 1-0 victory against Southampton last time out as Villa moved back into the top ten.
Dean Smith’s side return to home turf looking to add to their three-game unbeaten league run in B6.
West Ham are enjoying a superb season thus far, flying high in the table and winning games both at home and on their travels.
The Hammers have won five of their ten away trips in the Premier League, losing only twice.
Last time out, David Moyes’ team were beaten 3-1 by Liverpool to end a six-game unbeaten run.
Standout Stats
West Ham are looking to secure their first league double over Aston Villa since 2005-06. However, the Hammers have won just one of their last 10 Premier League visits to Villa Park (D4 L5) - 2-0 in February 2014.
Aston Villa have failed to score in five of their last nine Premier League meetings with West Ham, netting just once in each of the other four. Indeed, only against Newcastle (15) have West Ham kept more Premier League clean sheets than they have against the Villans (14).
After a run of three consecutive home league defeats in which they conceded a total of nine goals, Aston Villa have kept a clean sheet in each of their last three at Villa Park. They last kept four straight home clean sheets in the Premier League in October 2001.
West Ham are looking to win three consecutive Premier League away games for the first time since December 2018. The Hammers have already won more league games on the road this season (5) than they managed in the whole of 2019-20 (4).
Jack Grealish has been directly involved in eight goals in eight Premier League home games for Aston Villa this season (three goals, five assists) – if he scores or assists in this game, he will have more goal involvements at Villa Park this season than he did in the whole of last season (8 in 18 home league games).
West Ham manager David Moyes is unbeaten in his last nine Premier League matches against Aston Villa (W4 D5), although he has only registered a league double over Villa once previously, with Manchester United in 2013/14.
Aston Villa’s Bertrand Traoré has scored in each of his last two Premier League appearances at Villa Park – the last Villa player to score in three in a row at home in the top-flight was Darren Bent in November 2011.
The Last Meeting
Aston Villa were left aggrieved when they took on West Ham at London Stadium back in November.
Ollie Watkins appeared to have equalised in stoppage time, only for VAR to rule the goal out and fail to punish Angelo Ogbonna for a foul in the build-up.
Watkins had also missed a penalty after Ogbonna and Jarrod Bowen had scored either side of a Jack Grealish goal.
The Boss
“We’ll be looking forward to the game, they’ve had a fantastic season and I’ve got a lot of respect for David Moyes and what he’s doing. I think both teams want to play progressive football, both teams want to score goals and win football games. I’ve always said there’s a big difference between trying to win and trying not to lose and I think both teams will try to win, which should make for an entertaining game.”
Dean Smith
How To Watch
Aston Villa fans can watch Wednesday night's game with a BT Sport Monthly Pass.
UK-based supporters can watch Villa games on BT Sport with a Monthly Pass, which costs £25 and offers instant access to the BT Sport app and all four channels.
Villa fans will simply need to follow the link below and sign up for the Monthly Pass, which will automatically renew after 30 days unless it is cancelled.
