Aston Villa will face West Ham United at the London Stadium on Sunday, looking to bounce back from their 4-0 loss to Tottenham Hotspur.
Unai Emery’s side are yet to suffer back-to-back losses in the league this season and will be hoping to get their Champions League aspirations back on track.
Ahead of the fixture, Chris Sutton has cast his thoughts on what he expects to happen at the London Stadium.
Chris Sutton shares West Ham United v Aston Villa prediction
In his weekly BBC Sport predictions, Sutton said: “Both these teams were in action in Europe on Thursday, and it is going to be interesting to see how much those ties take out of them – but I still think Aston Villa will win this one.”
On the quality of the two teams, he added: “Villa have more quality than the Hammers, as they showed when they beat them 4-1 in October. Unai Emery’s side always create chances and, even in their 4-0 defeat against Tottenham last time out, if they had been more clinical, then it would have been a very different game.”
Aston Villa sweat on Ollie Watkins fitness ahead of West Ham clash
Ollie Watkins was forced off during the first half of Villa’s Conference League clash against Ajax on Thursday evening.
The injury certainly is cause for concern. The 28-year-old is in the form of his life and has led the line brilliantly thus far.
Jhon Duran is an exciting replacement, but the Colombian cannot be expected to step in and adequately deputise for the England international.
Hopefully, the substitution was purely precautionary ahead of what promises to be an extremely hectic end to the season.
After the fixture, the Villa boss provided an update: “He could be available for Sunday, but it is only a cut,” he told The Athletic. “We will wait and see tomorrow and Saturday. We are speaking before each match about how important Ollie Watkins is.”
