West Ham v Aston Villa: Premier League – live | Premier League

13 min “In the Manchester City All or Nothing doc there is a sequence where Arteta (still at city at that point) is instructing their midfielders on exactly when to make tactical fouls in transitions, so I think they’re well ahead of you there!” says Will Vignoles.

Haha, tremendous. Do they train them on how to foul? One of Claude Makelele’s great strengths was his ability to make a foul look clumsy rather than cynical, and therefore not necessarily worthy of a yellow card. Norman Whiteside had the same ability, as evidenced here.

10 min: Good save by Areola! Rogers collects the ball in the centre circle and sets off. The West Ham defenders are distracted by various off-the-ball runs, which allows Rogers to make right through to the edge of the area before curling a low shot that is pushed away by Areola, diving to his right. Rogers didn’t get hold of it properly.

10 min Onana… one-nil!

9 min We’ll probably have specialist tactical foul coaches by 2030.

8 min Bailey is booked for a tactical foul on Kudus, who was leading a West Ham break. I wonder if managers train players on when they should and shouldn’t take a yellow card, or whether instinct just kicks in.

7 min Villa have made a relaxed, confident start. West Ham have yet to settle.

Amadou Onana has scored after 210 seconds of his Villa debut. Tielemans curled a left-wing corner into the six-yard box, where Onana got away from Antonio, leapt mightily and headed past Areola from four yards.

GOAL! West Ham 0-1 Aston Villa (Onana 4)

4 min “Seasons greetings, Rob,” says Digvijay Yadav. “Nostalgia is a fool’s errand and so on, but while the football now, at the top level, is amazing, I always find myself comparing this unfavourably with the late ‘90s and mid noughties. I used to watch everything then. Now I couldn’t tell you what is nice about the Villa bench that you’ve listed. Mostly, I miss the blood and thunder style.”

Mostly, I miss being 25 years younger.

2 min Kudus makes a very clumsy challenge on McGinn in the West Ham area. The referee doesn’t give it time of day but I wouldn’t mind seeing a replay. The ball bounced up and it looked like Kudus might have kicked through McGinn. That said, I don’t think there were many appeals from Villa.

1 min Peep peep! West Ham kick off form left to right as we watch.

Here come the players. These players, to be precise.

West Ham (possible 4-2-3-1) Areola, Coufal, Kilman, Mavropanos, Emerson; Soucek, Rodriguez; Bowen, Kudus, Lucas Paqueta; Antonio.
Substitutes: Fabianski, Cresswell, Summerville, Ward-Prowse, Fullkrug, Ings, Todibo, Wan-Bissaka, Irving.

Aston Villa (possible 4-2-2-2) Aston Villa: Martinez, Cash, Konsa, Torres, Digne; Onana, Tielemans; Bailey, Rogers; McGinn, Watkins.
Substitutes: Gauci, Diego Carlos, Barkley, Duran, Buendia, Philogene-Bidace, Nedeljkovic, Maatsen, Ramsey.

Referee Tony Harrington.

“Have Villa recruited well enough?” wonders Andrew Hurley. “I think Douglas Luiz could be a big loss. And they don’t have enormous depth considering they were literally on fumes the last few games of last season, and they have champions league to come this season. But Emery…”

Ha, yes, Emery. I agree about Douglas Luiz, who was the rug that tied the room together. Onana has huge potential but it’s largely unfulfilled at this stage. It’ll be a boost when Boubacar Kamara is fit again. I don’t mind their depth – the bench tonight includes Diego Carlos, Ross Barkley, Emi Buendia, Ian Maatsen, Jacob Ramsey and Jhon Duran. That’s solid enough.

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“Having suffered another depressing start to my Everton boys’ season, I am looking forward to a palate cleanser of bright football from Villa,” writes Mary Waltz. “I think they will retain their well-earned top four status from last season.”

I don’t think they will, personally, though they’ll be loads of fun to watch and it wouldn’t shock me if they went quite deep in the Champions League.

A reminder of the teams

West Ham (possible 4-2-3-1) Areola, Coufal, Kilman, Mavropanos, Emerson; Soucek, Rodriguez; Bowen, Kudus, Lucas Paqueta; Antonio.
Substitutes: Fabianski, Cresswell, Summerville, Ward-Prowse, Fullkrug, Ings, Todibo, Wan-Bissaka, Irving.

Aston Villa (possible 4-2-2-2) Aston Villa: Martinez, Cash, Konsa, Torres, Digne; Onana, Tielemans; Bailey, Rogers; McGinn, Watkins.
Substitutes: Gauci, Diego Carlos, Barkley, Duran, Buendia, Philogene-Bidace, Nedeljkovic, Maatsen, Ramsey.

Referee Tony Harrington.

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