West Ham United Head Coach Graham Potter has made three changes to his starting XI for Sunday’s Premier League fixture at Aston Villa.
The first change comes in goal, where Alphonse Areola replaces Łukasz Fabiański. Areola returns to the team after sitting on the bench for the previous two Premier League matches. Today's game marks the Frenchman's eleventh top-flight start of the season.
With Dinos Mavropanos unavailable through suspension following his red card in last weekend’s 2-0 home defeat by Crystal Palace, Vladimír Coufal is drafted into the team at right wing-back.
The Czech returns after a two-match stint as an unused substitute to make his seventh start and 14th top-flight appearance of the season. He played the second half of the 2-1 Emirates FA Cup third-round defeat at Villa Park just over a fortnight ago.
Argentina international Guido Rodríguez is the third player to miss out, with the No24 dropping to the substitutes’ bench. Carlos Soler comes back into the side to make his tenth Premier League start and 18th appearance in the competition since joining on loan from Paris Saint-Germain last summer. The Spain international appeared as a late substitute in our recent FA Cup defeat here.
The game has come too soon for Jarrod Bowen and Crysencio Summerville, who are working their ways back from a fractured foot and hamstring injury respectively.
Otherwise, Potter has selected the same eight players who started the home defeat by Crystal Palace eight days ago.
The defence will be filled out by Aaron Wan-Bissaka, who looks set to start at right centre-back. With Mavropanos absent, Maximilian Kilman will play at the heart of the defence, with Aaron Cresswell starting on the left of the back three, and Emerson at left wing-back.
Kilman makes his 150th Premier League appearance. The 27-year-old appeared 127 times in the top-flight for former club Wolverhampton Wanderers, with today’s game marking his 23rd game in the competition for the Irons.
Stand-in captain Tomáš Souček will partner Edson Álvarez in midfield, with the Czech seeking his first goal against Aston Villa in what is his 12th career appearance for the Hammers against today’s opponents.
Should he score, the skipper will move level with Andy Carroll on 33 Premier League goals - joint-seventh in West Ham’s history in the competition.
Soler returns to the side and will look to make it back-to-back Premier League starts with a goal, having scored in the 3-2 home win over Fulham on 14 January before dropping to the bench against Crystal Palace last weekend.
Another player who scored in that Fulham victory also opened the scoring in our FA Cup defeat here, and in the reverse fixture against Aston Villa back in August, Lucas Paquetá. The Brazilian has been in encouraging form in recent matches, having also scored in the draw at AFC Bournemouth before Christmas.
Last but not least, Mohammed Kudus looks set to play up front again, having filled that role in the Crystal Palace fixture. The Ghanaian plays his 51st Premier League game for West Ham today.
With Mavropanos, Bowen, Summerville, Michail Antonio, Niclas Füllkrug and Jean-Clair Todibo unavailable, Potter has again named Academy trio Ollie Scarles, Kaelan Casey and Lewis Orford among his nine substitutes.
Aston Villa: Martínez ©, Cash, Konsa, Mings, Digne, Kamara, Bailey, Rogers, Tielemans, Ramsey, Watkins
Subs: Olsen (GK), Zych (GK), Maatsen, McGinn, García, Bogarde, Buendia, Malen, Durán
West Ham United: Areola, Coufal, Wan-Bissaka, Kilman, Cresswell, Emerson, Álvarez, Souček ©, Soler, Kudus, Paquetá
Subs: Fabiański (GK), Foderingham (GK), Scarles, Casey, Orford, Rodríguez, Irving, Luis Guilherme, Ings
Referee: Peter Bankes
