Looks like a pretty dismal day in Birmingham. Let’s hope we get some sunshine football, or something. The team sheets have been handed in, and here is the news. Ollie Watkins starts again, with Duran on the bench for Villa, with Leon Bailey and Lucas Digne the new faces from the team that drew with Arsenal. West Ham bring in Alphonse Areola in goal, and Vladimir Coufal and Carlos Soler out of goal.
![[Fans arrive at Villa Park]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/871d4ec3c67eabe3eae00666bc66bf718739ec1a/0_333_4793_2875/master/4793.jpg?width=465&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
Aston Villa: Martinez, Cash, Konsa, Mings, Digne, Tielemans, Kamara, Bailey, Rogers, Ramsey, Watkins. Subs: Olsen, Zych, McGinn, Duran, Buendia, Garcia, Malen, Maatsen, Bogarde. West Ham: Areola, Coufal, Kilman, Cresswell, Wan-Bissaka, Alvarez, Soler, Emerson Palmieri, Lucas Paqueta, Soucek, Kudus. Subs: Fabianski, Foderingham, Luis Guilherme, Ings, Rodriguez, Irving, Casey, Scarles, Orford.
![[West Ham’s Graham Potter]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/2ccb8ca155be12b1744cbdd7900fb5b5229c5e68/0_659_5428_3256/master/5428.jpg?width=465&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
Referee: Peter Bankes. “Of course, West Ham, they are not being consistent, but they have now a new coach. Tactically, they are going to improve,” said Unai Emery on Friday. We’re about to find out how much improvement they’ve managed, but Villa have some improving to do: sure, they’re eighth in the table which is fine “(“The most important for us is the Premier League, and to be in the table’s top eight positions,” Emery added), and have lost only one of their last five league games, but away from home they’re not so hot: two wins and five defeats in their last eight in the league, which would put them 16th in a notional last-eight-away-from-home table (in mitigation, those fixtures included visits to Newcastle, Nottingham Forest, Chelsea and Liverpool). Emery said their ambition was to “try to be consistent like we are at the moment at home”, where they would be sixth and unbeaten in a last-eight-games table.
