West Ham United hit the road again on Sunday, when David Moyes' men take on Aston Villa at Villa Park in the Premier League.
The 4.30pm will see the Hammers seek to extend their winning run to five matches in all competitions following Premier League victories over Everton and Tottenham Hotspur, a UEFA Europa League win over KRC Genk and a thrilling penalty shootout success against Manchester City in the Carabao Cup.
The Irons also head to the Midlands with an unbeaten away record to protect. West Ham have not lost any of their six away matches this season, including four in the Premier League, and have not lost on their travels anywhere, in competitive or friendly matches, since being edged out at Newcastle United on 17 April, over six months ago.
West Ham did the double over Dean Smith's side last season, winning 2-1 at home and 3-1 at Villa Park.
Kick-off is at 4.30pm and the game will be broadcast live in the UK by Sky Sports, so you can cheer on Moyes' men from home if you're not one of the fortunate 3,012 Hammers heading to Villa Park this weekend.
Ticket News
All 3,012 standard tickets have been sold to Season Ticket Holders.
For both Wheelchair Viewing Spaces and Accessible (AEA), tickets are charged at the relevant price band. Please call our Ticket Office Team on 0333 030 0174 or email [email protected].
However, if you want to watch David Moyes' high-flying Hammers in action, tickets are on General Sale for our home games with Liverpool and Dinamo Zagreb, while Claret Members can secure seats for the Premier League visit of Brighton & Hove Albion. Click here to buy your tickets now!
How to follow the game
Sunday's game will be screened live in the UK by Sky Sports, but will be broadcast live in dozens of countries across the world. Overseas fans should click here to find out where to catch the match.
We will be covering the game live with a blog and audio commentary on whufc.com and our Official App and across our social media channels, with exclusive reaction to follow after the final whistle.
We will have goals and highlights for you on whufc.com from 8.30pm and 12midnight on Sunday respectively.
Team news
David Moyes is set to recall a number of regular Premier League starters to his team for Sunday's game.
Declan Rice, Michail Antonio, Kurt Zouma, Angelo Ogbonna and Lukasz Fabianski were all rested for Wednesday's Carabao Cup win over Manchester City.
However, the likes of Alphonse Areola, Craig Dawson, Issa Diop, Mark Noble, Manuel Lanzini, Arthur Masuaku, Andriy Yarmolenko and Nikola Vlašić all impressed and will hope to feature, while Vladimír Coufal returned from injury as a substitute and could return to the team.
Alex Král and Ryan Fredericks are both getting closer to a return to action.
Dean Smith will hope to have Burkina Faso forward Bertrand Traore available after a thigh injury, but Egypt winger Trezeguet is still on the sidelines with a knee problem.
The Opposition
Aston Villa are still seemingly coming to terms with the loss of lifelong fan, talismanic captain and England international attacking midfielder Jack Grealish, who joined Manchester City in a £100m deal in the summer.
Manager Dean Smith invested plenty of that money in a succession of new and impressive signings, including England striker Danny Ings, Jamaica winger Leon Bailey, Spanish playmaker Emi Buendia and former England and Villa favourite Ashley Young.
Villa made a strong start, winning three of their opening six Premier League games, but have lost their last three, and they were also knocked out of the Carabao Cup on penalties at Chelsea in September.
Those recent results have seen Smith's future called into question for the first time by some less patient Villa supporters, who feel the club should be kicking on after finishing eleventh last season.
That impatience seems very harsh, seeing as Smith - himself a lifelong Villa supporter - led the club to promotion in 2019 and the Carabao Cup final in 2020, and has seemingly established them as a Premier League club after three years in the relative wilderness of the Championship.
Expectations remain high at Villa, which is unarguably one of the best-supported clubs in the country and the biggest in England's second-largest city, but as West Ham fans know, it takes time to build a squad capable of challenging the top six.
The likeable Smith will surely be given time to arrest the recent slide and quieten those who claim he has 'taken the club as far as he can'.
Previous meetings
West Ham United are unbeaten in six Premier League meetings with Aston Villa, winning three, including both fixtures last season.
Angelo Ogbonna and Jarrod Bowen headed the Hammers to a 2-1 win at London Stadium in November 2020, before two goals from debutant Jesse Lingard and one from Tomáš Souček saw David Moyes' men score an impressive 3-1 victory at Villa Park in February this year.
Our biggest Premier League win over Villa was a 4-0 thrashing handed out at the Boleyn Ground on 12 September 2005, when future Villa striker Marlon Harewood helped himself to a hat-trick.
When it comes to wins at Villa Park, we thumped our hosts 5-1 on 2 April 1927 in Division One, with Vic Watson netting twice.
Overall, our biggest victory over Villa was a 7-2 Division One success on 30 August 1958, when Vic Keeble, John Dick and Malcolm Musgrove each scored two goals.
Match Officials
Referee: Chris Kavanagh
Assistant Referees: Dan Cook & Nick Hopton
Fourth Official: David Coote
VAR: Stuart Attwell
Assistant VAR: Harry Lennard
Chris Kavanagh takes charge of a West Ham United fixture for the first time this season on Sunday.
A member of the Manchester Football Association, Kavanagh is in his fourth season as a Select Group referee.
Born in Manchester in 1985, Kavanagh was 13 when he began his refereeing career, moving up through the non-league pyramid to the National League in 2012, aged 27.
Kavanagh was promoted to the Football League in 2014 before refereeing his first Premier League fixture between West Bromwich Albion and Southampton in April 2017.
In all, Kavanagh has refereed nearly 300 senior matches, including 91 Premier League games, UEFA Champions League and Europa League ties, friendly internationals, UEFA Euro 2020 qualifiers and UEFA Nations League ties.
Kavanagh’s first West Ham United appointment was the FA Cup fourth-round defeat at Wigan Athletic in January 2018. Since then, he has taken charge of 12 Premier League fixtures featuring the Hammers, with the most recent being the 1-0 home defeat by Chelsea in April this year