Aston Villa vs West Ham Pre-Match Thread

[manic-road]

As much as i want us to win, i reckon it will be 0-0.

[Irreverent ad]

I hear Dunne has hurt his knee in ROI camp and could be a doubt for Saturday.
With that in mind I think it will be 2-2.

[JUAN PABLO]

2-0


Keane
Ireland

[Matt Collins]

Isn't Cuellar out, with doubts over Dunne now who's going for a scan? So we could be looking at Young / Lichaj, Beye, Clark and Warnock. Plus I'm wondering whether Gabby is going to be able to start given his lack of minutes?

I've got a feeling we'll struggle to create chances and Cole etc will create problems for our sketchy looking defence.

I think with the likes of Ireland and Keane we would get better going forwards, but I can foresee a bit of a stop and start opening to the season.

2-1 to West Ham, with a late goal from us providing little consolation, although I can also see this as a 1-1 with a similar pattern

[Sister of Top Cat]

I think we're going to lose 2-1 in stoppage time to a Hitzlsperger special.  And there'll be lots of booing which MON will go on about endlessly to the press over the coming weeks.

[flybo]

2-1 Villa win

[eamonn]

A howitzer from Hitz is written in the stars.

[Harlz]

2-0 Villa

Young
Carew

[Concrete John]

Not going to guess at a team due to the few injury doubts and prospective new signings, but I think we'll still have enough to beat West Ham.  I expect them to remember the Wigan debacle and be determined to avoid a reapeat, so a tight 1-0 win.

[mozza]

Our indifferent pre-season whilst Hammers have apparently performed well might suggest an away win
for the opening day

Fingers crossed we will have Stephen Ireland in the squad who would surely be more of an impact
substitution than Sidwell

Der Hammer will get a decent reception from the home support .........I hope he has left his shooting boots
at home

It's a closely fought 1-1 with Carew getting a head to one of young Marc's pin point crosses   

[Monty]

If Ireland signs and Gabby recovers (along with, let's say, Dunne and Cuellar) I'm getting a really horrible 4-4-2 feeling:

Friedel
Beye Dunne Cuellar Warnock
Downing Ireland Petrov Young
Gabby Carew

Which of course negates the whole point of having ball-players as good as Ireland and Petrov as they'll never have space or options on the ball. Great. However, judging on Ash's pre-season positioning, and given the same fitness and personnel, I'm hoping for:

Friedel
Beye Dunne Cuellar Warnock
Ireland Petrov Young
Downing Gabby Albrighton

Ireland and Young may not be massive, but they don't half work hard, and if they work together they can hurry anyone off the ball.

[Dan England]

1-1 Same shit different season!

[stevo_st]

1-0  85' Heskey

This will be his season

[sendô WHU]

I haven't paid a lot of attention to any of our pre-season games. A drab World Cup has left me feeling a little uninteresting in the beautiful game as a whole. I suspect with proper football returning this weekend that will all change and I'll be back into my usual weekend routine of watching it non stop, much to the annoyance of the missus (although between the WC, the cricket and F1 most weekends since May have been largely sport orientated anyway).

That said we've done well pre season, winning most games except I think a draw at Southend and a defeat against Burton Albion when we fielded mostly kids. We've got a few new signings in there which I'm looking forwards to. Der Hammer being one of course (with a nickname like that why the fuck did we not try to sign him years ago?), aswell as Barrera and this NZ right back Reid.

I'm not sure about making predictions, although the smart money's on a draw. We always seem to draw with you lot now. I'm struggling to remember the last time it wasn't a draw.

[Monty]

When you beat us last year, at your place. I'm sure you loved it, of course, but forgive me for saying it was one of my most depressing nights of the season.