West Ham looking to maintain recent run as they travel to Aston Villa

The Irons make the trip to Villa Park in the hunt of three points on the road in their first game back after the international break.

West Ham who currently are in ninth place in the Premier League face Aston Villa who are 18th and both teams will look for a win which may kick start a good run of form

Team news

Aston Villa’s only injury worry is with Jonathan Kodjia who has a fractured cheekbone.

West Ham will be without Michail Antonio and Winston Reid who are both still injured.

Aston Villa manager Dean Smith spoke about VAR and many other things ahead of the West Ham clash.

“I think the whole football community gave its decision on what it thought of that. I don’t really need to add too much more on it.

“I think there was a technicality involved in it where the whistle had been blown so VAR is no longer involved. But I think there was a VAR for the penalty decision but that wasn’t given.

“My whole thing with it is that a lot of people in the stadium didn’t know what was happening. Usually VAR comes up on the screen and you know there’s been a check. But we didn’t have that. I think that led to a lot of the confusion at that minute.”

West Ham United manager Manuel Pellegrini met with the media on Friday afternoon to discuss all things Irons ahead of Monday’s Premier League trip to Aston Villa

“We had a penalty appeal for a tackle on Sebastien Haller turned down during our game against Norwich City. The Premier League has since admitted this decision was wrong and that VAR should have awarded us a penalty.

“On reflection, I was not disappointed because we went on to win the game 2-0. Maybe if we didn’t win the game I would have been.

“You cannot expect that VAR will erase all the mistakes made by the referee; that is impossible because if you did you would have to consult every play, see the VAR and that makes the game too slow for everyone.

“But I think that VAR is a part of the game that will be positive. There are a lot of things that will improve as we use it more and more, but you cannot pretend that all of the mistakes will be erased.

“I am happy with it, generally and I think that it is a positive for the game, not only for individual matches for but the correct clubs getting through to the next round of cup competitions.”

Head-to-head

In the last five games between the two clubs, West Ham have won twice with Villa winning one game. The other two ended in draws.

Expected line-ups

Aston Villa XI- Heaton; Taylor, Mings, Engels, Guilbert; Grealish, Luiz, McGinn; El Ghazi, Wesley, Jota.

West Ham XI- Fabianski; Fredericks, Diop, Ogbonna, Masuaku; Noble, Yarmolenko, Rice, Lanzini, Anderson; Haller