The background
West Ham United make a festive trip to Aston Villa on Boxing Day looking to end an eight-game wait for victory.
The Hammers have drawn their last three games without a goal being scored - a record Premier League streak for the Club - so will be hoping to break their duck against bottom-of-the-table Villa.
Having been hurt by an extensive injury list to their attacking players, West Ham's goal threat has been blunted in recent weeks, but fine defensive work has meant they have continued to pick up points.
Villa haven't won since the opening day of the season and have only picked up seven points to date.
One of those came last time out as Jordan Ayew's goal earned them a 1-1 draw at fellow strugglers Newcastle United.
The game kicks off a busy Christmas for the Hammers, with games against Southampton and Liverpool to follow.
The history
West Ham United and Aston Villa have met 108 times in all competitions going into Saturday's fixture.West Ham hold the edge with 39 wins to the Villans' 38. Last season the pair drew 0-0 at the Boleyn Ground, but at Villa Park Tom Cleverley's goal gave the hosts a 1-0 victory.
The Hammers' record win over Villa is the 7-2 success they enjoyed in 1958.
The match
Team news
West Ham United
Slaven Bilic will once again be without defender Winston Reid on Saturday as he continues his recovery from a thigh injury.
Diafra Sakho is also out due to a thigh problem, while the Villa game comes too soon for Dimitri Payet (ankle).
Manuel Lanzini has a slight chance of returning after his hamstring trouble while Andy Carroll may also feature after missing the trip to Swansea with a groin injury. Victor Moses (hamstring) is out.
Aston Villa
Aston Villa captain Micah Richards is expected to miss a fourth consecutive game because of a knee injury.
Full-backs Joe Bennett and Aly Cissokho have both been recalled from loan spells but will not be eligible to play until January.
Match info
- Saturday's referee is Mike Dean. He will be assisted by Mark Scholes and Ian Hussin. Peter Bankes is the fourth official.
- West Ham have won just one of their last eight games at Villa Park (D2, L5).
- Villa are bottom of the top division at Christmas for only the third time in their history, after 1935/36 and 1958/59. They ended up being relegated on both of those previous occasions.
- The Villans are enduring two unwanted club league records: 16 matches without a win, and nine home matches without a victory since beating West Ham in May.
- They have kept just two Premier League clean sheets this season - only Norwich, with one, have a worse record.
- West Ham have drawn three successive league games 0-0 for the first time in their history.
- The Hammers have shared the points in their last four matches
Ticketing, travel, coverage and other details
- There will be a limited number of tickets available to Hammers fans at Villa Park. Click here for details.
- No trains will be running from London to Birmingham in Boxing Day. Click here for traffic news.
- Saturday is set to be a cloudy day with temperatures reaching 13C (55F) at kick-off.
- If you're not heading to the game make sure you keep up to date on our digital channels. The whufc.com Match Centre has live audio commentary and text updates, in-running stats and pictures and more. You can get involved with the conversation on social using the hashtag #AVLWHU