Aston Villa at West Ham: Prediction, preview, odds, team news and links

West Ham are not having a great start to the season. But neither are we. We can break it down and say we're still in the phase of having a new manager to the Premier League still working his magic under a restrictive owner, but it's grasping at straws.

But West Ham have Sam Allardyce and take away his stint as Blackpool manager where he had a win rate of 43.14%, you could almost argue that this is as good as it's going to get for West Ham with him in charge as he's currently got a win rate of 42.86%.

For transparency, I should state that Paul Lambert has a win rate of 35.09%, which is just a little bit worse than Gerard Houllier.

But we have optimism. He's a young manager, playing a young side and as Aston Villa fans we know it isn't going to get much better. So we enjoy the moment when it does look good.

And today could be one of those days. We're not playing at Villa Park for starters and at the moment that is a good sign. And we're playing a team that is below us and that must also be a good sign, right?

BBC statistics

• We have conceded the opening goal in seven of our Premier League fixtures this season. More than any other side.
• We have only taken one point from the last three matches and failed to score in that time.
• We last went four successive league games without a goal between December 2009 and January 2010.
• Paul Lambert has won more away league games (seven) as manager of Aston Villa than he has at Villa Park (six).
• Lambert's side have won five, drawn two and lost just two of their last nine league away games.
• Christian Benteke has missed two penalties this season. There have only been six penalties missed in total in the top flight this term.

Prediction and odds

And now it would be easy to say we're going to win today and even though I think we will, or we should, my head is leaning to a draw. But the odds on us winning are good and if I was betting on us, I'd have those odds. In fact, I might start betting on us again, we did better when I was.

So my bet of the day is still Fulham and us to win and for a tenner, if it happens, you'll get £180 back from Paddypower with the odds here.

And I know the odds are long for a reason, but we're due a win and I'm convinced that David Moyes isn't the man and Martin Jol at home can get something today. And betting isn't about betting on a sure thing, although that is the most effective way to make money if you're doing this for a living, I'm doing it for fun and a nice return.

Updates, team news and links

So with that all done, if you've got a link to anything of interest to the match, let us know below and as soon as the team is out, we'll post it here.

And you can follow the match here or on Twitter, if you're a follower and before I go, if you haven't already guessed the attendance of all three matches on the previous post, guess below. Six matches all kicking off at 3pm - how many people will attend. If you are the closest, you win a scarf - the best scarf in football.