Aston Villa v West Ham: Premier League – live!

16 September 2019 18:44
Premier League updates from Villa Park, 8pm BST kick-offPremier League: 10 talking points from the weekend’s actionFeel free to email Nick or tweet @NickAmes82 7.44pm BST It’s Manuel Pellegrini’s 66th birthday! Happy birthday, Manuel! “I want three points instead of the cake,” he says. It’s a wonder he ever gave Yaya Toure a game at Man City. 7.41pm BST On the subject of Nakamba, who’s your favourite Premier League old boy from Zimbabwe? Pick from (1) Bruce Grobbelaar (2) Peter Ndlovu and (3) Benjani, and show your working. 7.38pm BST More reading for thine eyes before we get going. Here’s Will Unwin on the power battle inside Sheffield United, another newly-promoted side: Related: McCabe v Prince Abdullah: how battle for control of Sheffield United unfolded 7.32pm BST A cracker in the Women’s Super League will be unfolding very soon. It’s Manchester United v Arsenal, and guiding you through that one will be our very own Niall McVeigh: Related: Manchester United v Arsenal: Women's Super League – live! 7.29pm BST On me telly Gary Neville is quite rightly taking us through Norwich’s brilliant building from the back at the weekend. When it works, it’s sensational – no doubt about that at all. 7.20pm BST Dean Smith on Nakamba: “Douglas Luiz has been playing for Brazil and it tires people out going back and forth. Marvelous has been training very well.” 7.17pm BST I fancy both teams to make use of a handy outball – Wesley and Haller both know how to lead a line – if passing out from the back isn’t possible. You don’t *have* to play out from the keeper, much as it can be lovely! Do we think that in five years’ time there’ll have been a massive kick back and proper Crazy Gang up-and-unders will be a la mode? 7.12pm BST Villa give a debut to Marvelous Nakamba, the absolutely spiffing Zimbabwe midfielder. The Hammers are unchanged. 7.10pm BST Aston Villa: Heaton, Guilbert, Engels, Mings, Taylor, Grealish, Nakamba, McGinn, Jota, Wesley, El Ghazi. Subs: Douglas Luiz, Lansbury, Steer, Hourihane, Konsa, Elmohamady, Davis.West Ham: Fabianski, Fredericks, Diop, Ogbonna, Masuaku, Noble, Rice, Yarmolenko, Lanzini, Felipe Anderson, Haller. Subs: Balbuena, Zabaleta, Snodgrass, Roberto, Fornals, Wilshere, Ajeti. 6.02pm BST It’s the claret and blue derby. Or should that be the David Cameron derby? Given that he’s everywhere you look at the moment we don’t really need to go there though. Let’s settle on this: it should be a rattling good game to round off a distinctly curious Premier League weekend.West Ham have been fun so far. Fun, fun, fun, with some in-form strikers and a free-flowing forward line. Villa have impressed, too, in beating Everton and were mightily unlucky not to draw in that controversial clash at Crystal Palace. So this one looks as if it will be very close to call. But the carrot for Manuel Pellegrini’s side tonight is huge – if they take the three points, they’ll go third in the early-season table. They couldn’t, could they ... etcetera and so forth. Probably not, but it’d be fun to see them having a pop at the top dogs. Continue reading......read full article

Source: TheGuardian