West Ham United have officially confirmed their starting eleven and substitutes to take on struggling Aston Villa at Upton Park in the Premier League this evening.
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The 28-year-old is confident he will have an instant impact for Slaven Bilic’s squad, having known the manager from his spells coaching in Russian Federation and Turkey. Six months is nothing, really, but it is great to come back.
Bilic admitted Nikica Jelavic may be allowed to leave the club if the right offer comes in and, with Diafra Sakho and Andy Carroll out with thigh and hamstring injuries respectively, he was keen to bolster his striking options. “Hopefully, we won’t start badly like [against City]”.
Five points from the last nine available represents progress for Aston Villa, but in their situation they need regular wins rather than draws in order to stand any realistic chance of even threatening to preserve their Premier League status.
However, Villa have had a couple of impressive players this season, Jordan Ayew being one of them.
Sam Byram returns after being cup-tied but fellow new signing Emmanuel Emenike looks likely to miss out as he awaits global clearance.
Adrian is undisputedly West Ham’s first-choice keeper, and will remain so, but it is reassuring to see that, once again in January, when he has been unavailable, Randolph stepped into his shoes easily.
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Garde found himself light in terms of strikers at the weekend, handing Gabriel Agbonlahor the second appearance of his tenure as Libor Kozak and Rudy Gestede recovered from injuries on the sidelines. He left for Villa in 2007 and helped them to three successive sixth-placed finishes while representing them in Europe, scoring once in 102 league outings.
