Chris Sutton predicts ‘hard done by’ West Ham United vs Aston Villa result
Chris Sutton predicts that West Ham will pick up their first point of the Premier League season when they face Aston Villa this weekend.
Winless and goalless through three matches the Hammers go into the game rooted to the foot of the table, while Steven Gerrard’s Villa side have only a tight win over Everton to show for their start.
A comfortable 3-0 victory away to Viborg on Thursday night (25 August), to complete their European qualification 6-1 on aggregate, is the lead in for Sunday’s meeting for David Moyes’ men, and Sutton has some confidence they will improve in time, but has gone for a 1-1 scoreline here.
In his BBC Sport predictions column he said: “These sides have both had indifferent starts to the season.
“Aston Villa manager Steven Gerrard hung his hat on Philippe Coutinho and left him out last week to start with Emiliano Buendia instead, but things did not happen for them in their defeat at Crystal Palace.
“Villa had a disappointing opening display against Bournemouth, too. I know they beat Everton, but things are not quite clicking and it is a big game for them with home advantage.
“West Ham have not got going either, although I think they will. They have lost the first three matches in the Premier League and David Moyes will maybe be feeling a bit hard done by.
“His side performed strongly at Forest, ended up hitting the bar and the post and certain things went against them, but they did not do enough against Brighton, their bogey team. West Ham also have big centre half problems, and I think this will be a draw.”
Start
Clearly this wasn’t the start to the campaign that anyone envisaged during the summer, but it surely can’t last much longer.
The Irons could have easily won at the City Ground, and had they done so their form would be disappointing without being on the brink of a crisis.
Brighton went to Manchester United and won on the opening weekend, who in turn beat Liverpool last week, so there is perhaps no shame in defeat to the Seagulls, while taking on the reigning champions with Erling Haaland ready to make his mark was never going to be the most charitable first game.
Gianluca Scamacca scored again in Denmark so the signs are there that he might be ready to start making an impact in the top flight as well, although the all-action but erratic Maxwel Cornet might need to dial it down a bit after Thursday.
A draw would be a start, but Moyes is certainly going to want all three points against a Villa side who have been dealing with their own disappointing start amid a major injury to their top centre-back signing.
West Ham have replaced theirs with the addition of Thilo Kehrer, while Angelo Ogbonna is getting back to his best after a long lay-off so the ingredients look like they are coming together to start putting some points on the board.
A win at Villa Park and a couple of late additions would make for an excellent week, but if the window closes without the result or the signings and things might start getting uncomfortable.