By Louis Nixon

West Ham are set to take on their last home match before Christmas against Aston Villa, who are currently sitting 3rd in the Premier League. 

West Ham’s record against the rising Aston Villa hasn’t been an admirable statistic, given that the last time the Hammers beat them, you’d have to go back to 2022! As well as this, Aston Villa are on one of the best runs of form they’ve had in years, with the club currently on an 8 win streak, with their last loss coming at the 1st November. 

However, whilst Villa’s fortunes are rising high, the Hammers have also built up momentum, which has seen Nuno’s side have 1 loss within the last 6, certainly a good achievement given where the club was at the beginning of the season. 

Fortunately, Football isn’t played on paper; therefore, anything can happen, but for sure, Nuno’s side will not lie down and be walked over. He’s got it drilled into the squad that we have to fight no matter what, regardless of the side. 

Similarly, against Brighton, many thought we would struggle given our track record against them as well as how they were doing, but we went to the AMEX Stadium and dominated them, they didn’t have a shot on target till the 88th minute! And the result of a draw simply came through for Brighton courtesy of VAR. 

Both sides have most players available apart from Aston Villa are seemingly without Ross Barkley, and for West Ham, Nuno alluded to some injuries by saying, “There are players to assess. I cannot give away anymore than that.” 

An unknown to the lineup which goes hand in hand with the result, anything can happen in Football and to write off West Ham and say that we’re guaranteed to lose would be far off the mark. 

The squads got a lot of confidence and the extra rest, so the unexpected could perhaps happen.