Aston Villa vs West Ham prediction: ENGLAND: Premier League betting tips on match 2023-10-21 15:30.
Two points separated Aston Villa and West Ham United within the Premier League’s (PL) top-seven prior to the international break after both sides drew their latest fixture. Unai Emery’s men were held to a 1-1 stalemate by local rivals Wolves, and the Spaniard would undoubtedly have been frustrated by his side’s first PL draw since May (W6, L2), as his side scored just once from 18 shots!
But some Villa fans might happily accept a repeat in this fixture given their poor recent H2H record, as they haven’t beaten West Ham anywhere in ten attempts (D4, L6), including losing the last three H2Hs on home soil! However, other supporters will be more confident as the Villans have now registered ten straight home league wins, their longest such sequence since a run of 13 that ended in October 1983.
West Ham boss David Moyes will have something to say about that as he has now gone unbeaten across 14 PL H2Hs with Villa (W8, D6) – his second-longest unbeaten run in the top-flight against any one team. After drawing 2-2 with Newcastle, which Moyes said was a “great point”, there was more good news when forward Jarrod Bowen signed a new seven-year contract.
He’ll be hoping to repay some of the faith the Hammers have shown in him by helping them return to the form that saw them go three league away games unbeaten (W2, D1) prior to losing 3-1 at Liverpool in late September. As all five of their last PL road fixtures (W2, D1, L2), and three of the last five H2Hs here (W3, D2), witnessed goals for both sides, both defences could be busy at Villa Park.
Players to watch: Ollie Watkins scored his second hat-trick of the season in Villa’s last home league game (W 6-1 v Brighton), and followed that up with the winner for England against Australia at Wembley, on both occasions netting after the 50th minute. Meanwhile, his England colleague Bowen has scored between the 35th and 60th minute in each of West Ham’s four league away games this term!
Hot stat: No team has a better PL first-half record than West Ham this term (HT: W5, D3).