Saturday 8th February 2014
15:00
Villa Park
Aston Villa vs West Ham United
Analysis
After a week of headline news for off the field reasons,
Saturday brings our focus firmly back to where it needs to be. With or without
Andy Carroll, West Ham need to follow up two impressive results and
performances at Villa Park.
Yes, a battling nil nil draw at Stamford Bridge and the
final nail in Michael Laudrup’s coffin at the Boleyn last week have seen an
upturn in performances, results, and the mood amongst West Ham fans. But Aston
Villa away is a fixture that saw possibly our worst away performance under Sam
Allardyce last season (we sat back to see what they had for 45 minutes, if you
remember), and an improvement upon that horroshow is a must.
For me, the Villains have a few key players. Obviously
Christian Benteke is a real threat up front, returning to form to bag three
goals and two assists in his last four Premier League games.
Before that, the Belgian suffered his leanest spell in
the Premier League so far, going 11 games without a goal. But he is well and
truly back in form, and is Villa’s highest performer in the last 6 games,
according to the Squawka Performance Matrix. Despite his dry spell, Benteke has
managed to nab himself 7 goals in 19 games this season, taking his overall Premier
League tally to a very impressive 26 in 53 games.
There is more to the big centre forward than just goals;
Benteke has created 35 goalscoring opportunities for his teammates this season,
with 2 resulting in assists, and has also won 54% of his 262 aerial duels (that’s
only half an aerial duel per game less than Andy Carroll contested in the whole
of last season, by the way); but it is the goals that set him apart from other
target men.
The image below shows Benteke’s shooting accuracy this
season, standing at an impressive 57% on target. What’s more, 19% of his 37
shots have ended up nestled in the onion bag, and a third of his accurate shots
hit the back of the net.
Another key player for Villa is a Fabian Delph. The
former Leeds United midfielder hasn’t really hit the heights that were expected
of him in his career to date, but this season he has gone from a steady
midfield player in this division, to a stand out performer in the Aston Villa
side.
Delph has an impressive 82% pass accuracy this season,
has created 14 chances for his teammates, has won 49% of his 105 attempted
tackles, completed 67% of his 57 take ons, and has bagged himself a couple of
goals straight out of the top drawer.
Arguably his best performance of the season came in Villa’s
3-2 away victory at St Mary’s in December. The Englishman completed 2 out of 2
attempted take ons, 3 out of 5 tackles, completed 75% his passes, created one
chance, and bagged himself a goal.
The image below shows his heat map from that game. Despite
Villa only managing 33% of the possession, Delph was everywhere, and managed to
really leave his stamp on the game.
Despite this being an away game, this is a really good
opportunity for West Ham. Aston Villa often struggle at Villa Park, and are
recognised as a counterattacking side, due to the pace of the likes of Delph,
Benteke, Andreas Weimann and Gabriel Agbonlahor. This style isn’t really suited
to being the home side, so West Ham will have the opportunity to go and take
the initiative on Saturday.
If Andy Carroll lines up we have a really good chance of
recording back to back victories for the first time in an age. And even he
doesn’t this is a game we should really be targeting a victory from. Win this,
and we could leapfrog up to 7 sides, and put ourselves just 2 points behind
Villa in 10th place.
Make no mistake, this is an important game. And we need
to take this opportunity.
Head to Head
35% Head to Head Win % 35%
38 Won 38
32 Drawn 32
38 Lost 38
168 Goals Scored 166
166 Goals Conceded 168
Recent Form
W L L D W L Last 6 L W L L D W
10 Goals Scored 5
11 Goals Conceded 12
L L D L L W Home/Away Form L L L L W D
7 Goals Scored 4
12 Goals Conceded 16
Form Player (excl. GK)
(Last 6 League)
Christian Benteke - George McCartney
5 Appearances 4
450 Minutes Played 343
142 Sum Squawka Performance Score 105
28 Average Squawka Performance Rating 26
204 Passes Attempted 166
130 Completed 130
64% Success Rate 78%
10 Chances Created 2
2 Assists 0
7 Attempts on Goal 0
6 On Target 0
3 Goals 0
15 Take Ons Attempted 1
5 Successful Take Ons 0
33% Success Rate 0%
9 Tackles Made 12
3 Successful Tackles 7
33% Success Rate 58%
0 Interceptions 5
5 Clearances 46
1 Blocks 7
1 Defensive Actions Per Game 15
73 Aerial Duels 20
43 Won 9
59% Success Rate 45%
0 Defensive Errors 0
0 Leading to a Goal 0
Last Meeting
27 October 2013
3-5-2 Starting Formation 4-6-0
Brad Guzan - Jussi Jääskeläinen
Ron Vlaar - Guy Demel
Nathan Baker - James Tomkins
Ciaran Clark - Winston Reid
Matthew Lowton - Rǎzvan Raţ (90')
Ahmed El Ahmadi - Mark Noble
Kieran Westwood - Jack Collison (63')
Yacouba Sylla - Stewart Downing
Leandro Bacuna - Kevin Nolan
Christian Benteke - Ravel Morrison
(57') Andreas Weimann - Matt Jarvis (62')
Subs
Jed Steer - Adrián
Chris Herd - Joey O'Brien
Damien Johnson - Dan Potts
Aleksandr Tonev - Mohamed Diamé (90')
Jordan Bowery - Joe Cole (62')
Nicklas Helenius - Modibo Maïga
(57') Libor Kozak - Carlton Cole (63')
Absentees
Injured/Doubtful
Aston Villa: Ron Vlaar, Jores Okore, Joe Bennett, Chris
Herd, Charles N'Zogbia, Libor Kozak, Gabriel Agbonlahor
West Ham United: Joey O'Brien, Mohamed Diamé, Joe Cole
Suspensions
Aston Villa: n/a
West Ham United: Andy Carroll
Opposition Last Time Out (League)
vs Everton
Goals Scored: 1
Goals Conceded: 2
Starting Formation: 3-4-1-2
Brad Guzan
Ron Vlaar (80') Nathan Baker Ciaran Clark
Leandro Bacuna Ashley Westwood Fabian Delph Ryan Bertrand
Andreas Weimann (87')
Grant Holt (61') Christian Benteke
subs:
Jed Steer
Matthew Lowton
Yacouba Yylla
Karim El Ahmadi (61')
Marc Albrighton (80')
Nicklas Helenius
Aleksandr Tonev (87')
Best Player: Leandro Bacuna
Squawka Rating: 48
Worst Player: Brad Guzan
Squawka Rating: -27
Top 5's (Min 5 Apps)
Goals Scored
Christian Benteke 7 - 4 Carlton Cole
Leandro Bacuna 4 - 4 Kevin Nolan
Libor Kozak 4 - 3 Joe Cole
Gabriel Agbonlahor 3 - 3 Ravel Morrison
Andreas Weimann 3 - 2 Ricardo Vâz Te
Assists
Gabriel Agbonlahor 5 - 4 Kevin Nolan
Matthew Lowton 3 - 3 Andy Carroll
Andreas Weimann 3 - 3 Matt Jarvis
Christian Benteke 2 - 2 Modibo Maïga
Leandro Bacuna 1 - 2 Ravel Morrison
Passing Accuracy
Ashley Westwood 82% - 86% Ravel Morrison
Karim El Ahmadi 82% - 83% Mark Noble
Fabian Delph 82% - 82% Stewart Downing
Ron Vlaar 77% - 81% Jack Collison
Aleksandr Tonev 76% - 80% Joe Cole
Chances Created per game
Christian Benteke 1.9 - 1.8 Stewart Downing
Ashley Westwood 1.7 - 1.6 Mark Noble
Marc Albrighton 1.6 - 1.2 Matt Jarvis
Gabriel Agbonlahor 1.2 - 0.9 Kevin Nolan
Matthew Lowton 1 - 0.7 Ravel Morrison
Successful Dribbles per game
Fabian Delph 1.8 - 2.1 Ravel Morrison
Gabriel Agbonlahor 1.1 - 2 Mohamed Diamé
Marc Albrighton 1 - 1.3 Mark Noble
Antonio Luna 0.8 - 0.9 Stewart Downing
Yacouba Sylla 0.8 - 0.8 Guy Demel
Tackles per game
Fabian Delph 3.2 - 2.6 Mark Noble
Karim El Ahmadi 3.2 - 2.5 Mohamed Diamé
Leandro Bacuna 2.5 - 2.4 James Collins
Antonio Luna 2.3 - 2 Kevin Nolan
Ron Vlaar 2 - 1.8 Winston Reid
Aerial Duels Won per game
Christian Benteke 7.7 - 4.4 James Tomkins
Libor Kozak 3 - 3.5 James Collins
Nathan Baker 2.6 - 2.9 Winston Reid
Ciaran Clark 2.2 - 2.4 Carlton Cole
Jordan Bowery 1.8 - 1.5 George McCartney
Manager
Paul Lambert - Sam Allardyce
32.8% Current Club Win % 40.1%
24 Won 49
17 Drawn 32
32 Lost 41
40.8% Managerial Career Win % 39.7%
162 Won 343
95 Drawn 231
140 Lost 288
1 League Titles 2
0 Cup Wins 0
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