West Ham v Aston Villa
I must confess to being overly excited about today’s Premier League opener, which sees West Ham take on Aston Villa at the London Stadium.
Having watched Manchester United narrowly beat Fulham at Old Trafford last night, the fixture had a similar feel to last season. I’m sure both sets of supporters would have felt the usual excitement, but with ten Hag and Silva in the dugouts and familiar faces on both teams, there didn’t appear to be too much change form the previous campaign.
Contrast that with our own Hammers and, to a certain extent, Aston Villa, and there has been significant upheaval in the playing staff, making everything seem rather different. Factor in a change of gaffer for West Ham, and there is a very unfamiliar look in year one of Tim Steidten’s five-year project.
Julen Lopetegui takes charge of his first EPL game as head coach of West Ham, aiming for a victorious start after a busy transfer window that saw the arrivals of Max Kilman, Jean-Clair Todibo, Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Niclas Füllkrug, and more.
On the other side, Unai Emery’s Aston Villa, fresh from a successful campaign that secured them UEFA Champions League football, are ready to challenge with their new signings, including Samuel Iling-Junior, Enzo Barrenechea, and former Irons target Amadou Onana.
It really is a fascinating battle between two Basque Country coaches who hail from adjoining villages.
The 5:30 kick-off is a minor inconvenience given my boyish excitement and eagerness to get cracking, but I’m honestly buzzing for what should be an intriguing tactical battle between two old foes who know each other’s games inside out.
COYI
“I must confess to being overly excited”….
I hope you’ve brought your own tissues, mate 😳
Fizzing at the bung only goes part of the way to describing how I’m doing in the excitement department. This is probably going to be fits and starts from us with so many new players but that’s no problem. Just knowing we’re going to look more and more slick game by game. I’m ready to be entertained.
A full squad of potential! We always had 6 great players in our team, to have a full squad of true first team players is a new one on me. Decades in waiting for a squad that can compete in all cups/league.
Fantastic⚒️
To a degree, in 66 years of supporting West Ham I have seen it all before – so many “false dawns”. I hope that this isn’t just another one ! However, this time just might be different, as I can’t remember a time when we have had so much class in the team. This comes with the proviso that I still don’t think that we have enough competent defenders. It is all very promising, but the players will take time to gel. For that reason, & the fact that Villa are a very strong team with a very good manager, I tend to think that we will come away from this a little disappointed. It could go either way, but being a veteran supporter, I think this will be an away win.
Obviously we are of similar age. This has got to be the most exciting transfer session ever and I can understand completely the pessimistic view but I just feel this is the start of a new era. First game maybe a draw but good things must come from the squad now, even at Hammers!!! Anyway here’s hoping for a better future, but give them time.
i’m 50 years in deep and i agree with both of you. a well fought out draw and i’ll be relieved and satisfied. a win would bring the house down ⚒💪🇦🇺
Let’s hope that some sections of fans don’t spoil it for us. Many new players perhaps too eager to please their new fans may make mistakes, lose the ball too often etc and that’s when the fans can get restless and could poison the atmosphere with chants against the board for whatever reason. That happened on our debut season at Stratford and some fans are still holding that grudge eight years later. Let’s hope the players perform well and we all have a great day
We will field a strong team today and the bench will not look weak either.
I have no idea at all whether all the changes will gel this quickly though, none at all, so nothing will surprise me.
That goes for todays game and pretty much for the season too. We could rip it up, that potential is there, or it could take forever to shape up. Never a dull moment.
Bit worried..we got tye players ..but can he get them playing well this quick …i Hope so..will be a tough game today