Villa Park was the scene of one of my favourite days on the road following the Hammers.
Who can forget Ashton’s knockdown, Harewoods’s left foot rocket and THAT Johnny Lyall’s Claret and Blue Army minute ‘silence’ of the 2006 FA Cup semi-final against Middlesbrough.
Unfortunately, that is, by far, as good as it has got for me here, 5 visits and 5 defeats in this fixture suggests that deciding to watch from the warmth of my front room rather than make the journey is, very much, a good thing.
I’m sure I’m not the only one amongst us complaining about unsuccessful visits to the less hostile half of Birmingham though, because one win in the last 14 hardly makes for pleasant reading.
However, has there ever been more unrest amongst the Villa faithful as what there is currently. Surely not.
Things always seem worse when your home record is bad and that is exactly what Villa’s is, just two wins and a paltry nine goals scored from their 12 games on home soil this season has resulted in some of their fans resigning themselves to enduring at least a season in the Championship.
Let’s face it, we’ve been there and we know how they feel.
And as for us, with no new injury concerns, coming off the back of an impressive – and highly important – victory over Swansea and taking in to account what has been mentioned above, is there any reason why we shouldn’t be confident of picking up our third away win of the season and another crucial third points?
Of course there is, this is West Ham after all.
Our dreaded away form for one, which I’m not going to ponder on for too long, I think I covered that well enough in the Fulham preview and my opinion certainly hasn’t changed from what I saw in that game.
Also, Villa had an encouraging result at Everton last time out – although they will see it as two points dropped having given away a 3-1 lead – and with players such as Agbonlahor, Benteke and Weimann in their ranks, there is certainly enough quality there to cause our shaky defence problems.
Added to the fact that Paul Lambert will, I’m sure, class this as a must win game, they should certainly not be underestimated.
As always, I will gladly take a point away from home and, although I don’t think it will be pretty, come half past three, if the spoils have been shared then ours will, without doubt, be the happier of the dressing rooms.
Match in Numbers
8 – Villa are without a win in their last eight league matches.
9 – It has been nine games since Paul Lambert’s side last kept a clean sheet.
11 – The Hammers have conceded 11 goals in their last three games on the road.
12 – Villa have not won any of their last 12 Premier League games on a Sunday.
7 – Allardyce’s side have scored just seven goals away from home all season, which is the lowest in the Premier League.
2 – Villa have recovered just two points from losing positions this season, which is a divisional low.
1 – From the last 21 available, the Hammers have collected just one on the road.
All Time Head-to-Head (all competitions)
Aston Villa – 37
Draws – 31
West Ham United – 38
