WHZ View: Top scorer on the bench, 26y/o to start – West Ham predicted XI v Aston Villa
West Ham face Aston Villa at the London Stadium on Monday night, with the Hammers looking to extend their recent winning run in the Premier League.
The East London side won their last match against Sheffield United 1-0 thanks to a Sebastien Haller winner.
After spending a month on the sideline Michail Antonio is back in training and could return, but Andriy Yarmolenko is expected to miss out once again due to COVID-19 (via Premier Injuries).
In goal, one of the Hammers’ seven ever-present starters Lukasz Fabianski should continue, while a back three of Fabian Balbuena, Angelo Ogbonna and Aaron Cresswell should play ahead of him.
Issa Diop is another option at David Moyes’ disposal but with two clean sheets from their last two games, this current lineup deserves to continue.
Vladimir Coufal and Arthur Masuaku have impressed in their wing-back roles and should continue to flank the back three, with Declan Rice and Tomas Soucek will feature as Moyes’ central midfield duo.
The front three should also be unchanged, with the Pablo Fornals and Jarrod Bowen both excellent so far this season as the wide options for Moyes.
Meanwhile, Haller should keep his place up front after scoring the winner last time out but will be aware of the presence of joint-top scorer Antonio on the bench.
In other West Ham news, the three Hammers players that have improved this season