Aston Villa at West Ham: Updates, team news, banter and bet of the day

Three points today could see us move up to ninth in the table. A win today would be fantastic. A win today would mean we were five places better off this season, the first for Gerard Houllier, than we were after 33 games in the first season for the previous manager.

Then, try to imagine how much better off we might be in his second season after 33 games. But, as I wrote yesterday, today isn't going to be easy as West Ham are a better team at home than they are away.

Anything can happen in 90 minutes

The bookmakers, as I write this, have West Ham down as the favourites but the bookmakers are not always right and there is news circulating that Scott Parker is going to miss this match and if that is the case, I can see some money getting put on Villa and those odds changing.

But it isn't about one player and West Ham will be a threat if Parker plays or not, but it might very well be the bit of luck that helps us out more than them.

Match odds

Updates, team news and bet of the day

The match kicks off in a little over four hours, so I'm going to finish watching Soccer AM but as soon as there is some team news, I'll update the page and Tweet it. But before I go, a list.

Breakfast now, beer and peanuts later and after match post, hopefully in a good mood.

The team

Friedel, Walker, Collins, Dunne, Luke Young, Downing, Petrov, Reo-Coker, Ashley, Heskey and Bent all start. On the bench we have Marshall, Pires, Makoun, Albrighton, Clark, Gabby and Cuellar.