Aston Villa vs West Ham prediction: ENGLAND: Premier League betting tips on match 2025-01-25 16:30.
[p]Aston Villa return to Premier League action following a disappointing 1-0 loss at Monaco on Tuesday – a result which manager Unai Emery fears may cost his side automatic progression to the last 16 of the UEFA Champions League. Villa’s chances of returning to Europe’s top table via a top-four finish in the Premier League also appear slim, but a strong recent record against West Ham should inspire confidence this weekend.[/p]
[p]Villa are unbeaten in the last five H2Hs (W3, D2), most recently coming from behind to win 2-1 in the FA Cup earlier this month. Avoiding defeat again this weekend would also extend their unbeaten run on home soil to 11 league matches (W6, D4) – only Arsenal are on a better such run in the top-flight.[/p]
[p]Visitors West Ham begin the weekend ten points adrift of both the drop zone and Villa in eighth, and having already been eliminated from the FA Cup by their opponents here, their season is at risk of fizzling out. New boss Graham Potter therefore has licence to integrate his methods, with a 2-0 defeat to Crystal Palace last week in which his side failed to register a shot on target a reminder of the task ahead of him.[/p]
[p]Potter remains starved of attacking options, but received a boost this week with captain and talisman Jarrod Bowen returning to training. It’s unlikely he’ll make this trip to help his side improve on a miserable recent record of scoring multiple goals in just one of their last 11 away matches in all competitions (W2, D3, L6).[/p]
[p]Players to watch: Ollie Watkins has directly contributed to a goal in three of Villa’s last four games (G2, A1), and has scored four times in ten H2Hs, including in a 4-1 victory in last season’s corresponding fixture. Carlos Soler got his first West Ham goal against Fulham earlier this month (W 3-2) – the 12th successive time that the Spaniard has been on the winning side when finding the net. [/p]
[p]Hot stat: Ten of the last 11 H2Hs have seen both teams score. [/p]
[p][i]Written by Alex Bowmer[/i][/p]