Key events
GOAL! West Ham 0-1 Aston Villa (Onana 4)
Now that’s what I call a good debut.
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.
More match reports
Match report: Arsenal 2-0 Wolves
Ben Bloom was at the Emirates to watch Arsenal get their season off to relatively serene start.
Today’s Premier League results
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Arsenal 2-0 Wolves
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Oh, Everton 0-3 Brighton
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Ipswich 0-2 Liverpool
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Newcastle 1-0 Southampton
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Nottm Forest 1-1 Bournemouth
“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.
Season previews
Team news
Guido Rodriguez and Max Kilman are the only summer signings to start for West Ham, though Niclas Fullkrug and friends are on the bench.
Ollie Watkins starts up front for Villa, whose team also includes their big summer signing Amadou Onana.
Preamble
Hello and welcome to live coverage of West Ham v Aston Villa at the London Stadium. This claret and blue contest is one of the better fixtures of the opening weekend, a hard-to-call meeting between a team that is making a fresh start and another that is about to explore new territory. Villa’s Champions League campaign starts next month, so for now their focus is to pick up where they left off in the Premier League.
West Ham want less of the same: not so much an improvement in results as a change of style now that Julen Lopetegui has replaced David Moyes. They’ve had a very good transfer window, bringing in Niclas Fullkrug, Max Kilman and Jean-Clair Todibo among others. A team that has lived and breathed counter-attacks for the last few years may take a while to adjust to having more of the ball. We’ll soon find out.
Kick off 5.30pm.