Real Football Man All of the Football, All of the time
West Ham defender James Tomkins could miss Tuesday’s game against Aston Villa after suffering a head injury against Liverpool in the FA Cup.
Sam Byram returns after being cup-tied but fellow new signing Emmanuel Emenike looks likely to miss out as he awaits international clearance.
Villa are likely to be without injured forwards Rudy Gestede and Libor Kozak.
Carlos Sanchez remains sidelined, while Ashley Westwood (calf) and Alan Hutton (hamstring) are doubts.
Editor’s Note: West Ham have only lost 1 of their last 10 Premier League matches and last time out were unlucky not to get a win over title chasers Manchester City. The currently are 6th in the table and tonight play host to basement side Aston Villa.
On Saturday The Hammers failed to beat Liverpool for the third time this season as they played out a 0-0 stalemate at Anfield, although Slaven Bilic will owe a large debt of gratitude to Goalkeeper Darren Randolph whose string of saves means the two sides will do it all again at Upton Park next week.
Carl Jenkinson’s time at West Ham has come to an end after he picked up a cruciate ligament injury in the game against Manchester City and he has now gone back to parent club Arsenal for rehabilitation. That means that new signing Sam Byram will be thrown into first team action sooner than expected but he looked very comfortable after coming on for Jenkinson so no doubt Slaven Bilic will have every confidence in starting the ex-Leeds player.
Injuries have played a key part in West Ham’s season with the treatment room always seemingly at capacity at Upton Park, with West Ham sitting 6th at present you have to ask yourself where they would be if they had better luck on this front.
Tonight they will look to enhance their chances of European Football for the second season in a row as Remi Garde’s Aston Villa side come to town. Villa were easily brushed aside on Saturday as they were dumped out of the F.A. Cup by Manchester City.
It was quite an abject performance at Villa Park with Idrisse Gueye gifting City 2 of their Goals, that in itself was symptomatic and summed up Villa’s seasons. Admittedly they had been looking better as of late but it’s as if they hit the reset button last Weekend. It’s now Remi Garde’s job to pick them up again.
Villa are 10 points from safety and are running out of games if they to pull off probabaly the greatest of great escapes this Season. With no new faces coming into the squad during the January Transfer Window you have to ask yourself whether that some crop of players are going to improve between now and the end of the season. I think we all know that the answer is most probably no.
As for Tonight it should be a routine win for a West Ham side who have impressed this season and if Dimitri Payet is up for it then The Hammers should be purring. I think a routine home win for me Tonight and more misery for Villa.
