Paul Merson predicts Aston Villa win v West Ham United
Sky Sports pundit Paul Merson has predicted that Aston Villa will secure a win against West Ham United in their Premier League fixture this weekend.
The Villans have had a difficult start to their campaign where they have only managed to secure three points from the first three matches.
Merson, in a column for Sportkeeda, stated that while there is very little to chose between the teams, Villa will have an edge because of playing at home.
“This is going to be a good game,” he wrote. “West Ham have had an absolute nightmare of a start to their Premier League season.
“They punched above their weight last year but are struggling at the moment. I thought West Ham were unlucky against Forest – if you play counter-attacking football, you have to score the first goal.
“Aston Villa held on and got over the line against Everton, but they did lose against Crystal Palace. This is a big match for them.
“Steven Gerrard played a strong team against Bolton – that tells you everything you need to know. He needs to win matches. This is a massive Premier League match for both teams. Both sets of fans will be mad with a defeat here.
“I think whoever scores first wins this game. Aston Villa are playing at home in the Premier League this week, and I think they have a slight upper hand.”
Must win
Aston Villa are going through a tough period where not much is going right for them on the pitch. They’ve only managed to secure three points from the first three matches, suffered two defeats, there is also talks of rift between the manager and some of the senior players.
Therefore, it is extremely crucial for the Villans that they get a positive result, that too against a team who are yet to open their account this season.
The match will be an extremely important one for Aston Villa’s manager Steven Gerrard as well who has found it hard to get the kind of results he was expected to get since he replaced Dean Smith on the bench.
He will be hoping that the players will take this match as an opportunity to produce their best performance and register all three points, especially while playing at home in front of more than 40,000 die-hard Villa fans.
In other Aston Villa news, Patrick Vieira openly explained how he set his Crystal Palace side up to beat the Villans on Saturday.