Aston Villa 0-0 West Ham LIVE: Score, Hammers can leapfrog Man Utd, Chelsea and Arsenal

WEST HAM 0-0 ASTON VILLA

Aston Villa XI: Heaton, Guilbert, Engels, Mings, Taylor, Nakamba, Grealish, Jota, McGinn, El Ghazi, Wesley

West Ham XI: Fabianski, Fredericks, Diop, Ogbonna, Masuaku, Rice, Noble, Yarmolenko, Lanzini, Anderson, Haller

WEST HAM 0-0 ASTON VILLA

42: Ouch! Absolute war out there now. El Ghazi advances down the left and cuts inside to meet a lofted cross. Fabianski flies off his line to punch it clear – getting the ball and the man.

40: Things are hotting up now. Firstly Felipe Anderson drifts past El Ghazi (again?!) with absolute ease to head straight at Engels. El Ghazi then sticks a leg in on Noble to claim the rebound and the West Ham man hits the deck. Nothing doing says Mike Dean.

Just seen the replay – and it’s a clear dive from Noble, who’s already on a booking. Lucky boy.

37: Ey up! Not often the referee has to blow his whistle to prevent two team-mates from arguing! Mings gives El Ghazi a piece of his mind for some poor defending and the pair actually clash heads.

Mike Dean sends it to VAR and a stern warning is administered. Flashbacks of Lee Bowyer and Kieron Dyer.

35: More sustained pressure from Aston Villa results in very little, quick counter from West Ham breaks down. The summary of tonight.

33: Danger! The hosts have themselves a free-kick on the left flank – ten yards inside the touchline. It’s worked short and, once again, the move breaks down.

Two enormous centre-forwards playing tonight and both sides have refused to deliver a normal set-pieces. Madness.

30: Mike Dean likes a booking tonight. He’s shown his second of the night for a fairly harmless sliding tackle from Jack Grealish. And another… Mark Noble goes in the book for his fifth dodgy tackle of the game.

The Dean in ruthless form…

27: Don’t often see Declan Rice shooting from distance. He lines one up from 25-yards out and it’s blocked on the way through. Corner.

Felipe Anderson takes it short… and it’s terrible. Masuaku arrives on the edge of the box to fire into space.

24: Ouch! Masuaku and Guilbert collide in spectacular fashion and the Aston Villa man comes off worse. Just watching the replay now and Masuaku does appear to catch his foot with studs up. Mike Dean books him.

21: Momentum shift? Maybe. West Ham are seeing more of the ball and countering at speed. No killer quality in the final third yet, but certainly more controlled possession.

18: Close! Manuel Lanzini counters nicely for the visitors and he slips it through to Anderson down the left. He shifts the ball to his right and crosses for Haller, who heads wide.

15: Should be 1-0. It really should be. Jack Grealish embarks on a great run towards the right of the penalty area before whipping a cross over to Wesley, who inexplicably fails to get the header on target.

13: John McGinn curls the ball into the top corner and the home fans go crazy… for three seconds until Mike Dean blows his whistle. Angelo Ogbonna was adjudged to have been fouled in the build-up.

10: West ham have taken more points away from home than everyone expect the established top six since Christmas. Not too shabby at all. Mark Noble rushes onto a loose pass and fizzes it straight at Tom Heaton.

Incidentally, I have Tom Heaton in my fantasy football side. Just hanging that out there…

8: Splendid move. Smashing move. Ghastly defending. El Ghazi allows Yarmolenko to skip past him with a minimum of fuss. The winger lays it in for Haller, whose first-time lay-off to Lanzini is quality. The Argentine’s effort is blocked.

5: Bosh! Felipe Anderson sends a backpass to Fabianski, but Wesley isn’t prepared to allow him any time and charges down the clearance. Mark Noble then thumps a cross field pass straight out of play. All positive signs for the hosts.

3: Oh what a treat! We have Mike Dean officiating tonight. So if the game is dull at least we have a potential meltdown from him. Always good to have a Plan B.

Aston Villa have started on the front-foot with West Ham looking a bit sloppy.

WEST HAM 0-0 ASTON VILLA

1: Right then, we are underway at a packed Villa Park. Are we all in agreement that Villa Park is everyone’s favourite away ground? Good.

Happy birthday, Manuel!

19:45: West Ham United manager Manuel Pellegrini: “Last season we lost against the teams around us. Now we will see as Aston Villa has a good team and a difficult stadium but we will go there and try to win.

“They have a lot of attacking players and a manager who wants to play in an attacking style but they must adapt.”

The Chilean tactician is 66 today. Says he would swap the cake for three points. Not sure the FA will accept that as an option – but I’ll ask.

Monday night lights

19:35: Aston Villa boss Dean Smith speaking to Sky Sports: “Under the lights here we were very good against Everton. Every game is important whether it is Crystal Palace away last game or West Ham tonight. This is an opportunity to pick up three points.

“I don’t think we have dominated games for long periods with the exception of Bournemouth here but when they were two up and they probably allowed us more time on the ball.”

‘Tonight will determine Villa’s future’

19:30: Not like Gary Neville to heap the pressure on a team to deliver. He’s been discussing tonight game and thinks it’s must-win for Villa.

“Nights like tonight will determine whether there’s good times ahead,” Neville said. “You’re at the point of a season where a defeat will look like there’s pressure on, or a win will make it look like a good star,t it’s the same like West Ham.

“That win against Everton felt like an event. Back in the Premier League, under the lights, on TV, they responded to it.

“But they’ll have to be at their best most games to win, and their home form against beatable opponents, the likes of Everton and West Ham, are going to be critical for them.”

Twitter round-up

Louis: Not sure why, just not feeling too confident tonight. These are the type of games we (West Ham) always struggle to thrive in.

Blythe: Our starting 11 is the best it’s been in over 15 years and our squad depth is so good now. I just hope we don’t do a West Ham and go lose tonight when we should be winning this.

Rob: Aston Villa vs West Ham, otherwise known as the claret and blue fashion faux pas derby.

First four

19:15: So how are we rating the starts these two sides have made?

West Ham occupy ninth position having taken seven points from their first four fixtures – quite a good recovery given their opening day spanking to Manchester City.

Victory tonight will send them into third position and really make it a positive start.

Villa… well that’s a tougher question.

Dean Smith’s side are down in 18th – with their only points coming against Everton. The defeat to Crystal Palace is a bitter pill to swallow and they gave Spurs a really stern test away from home.

A win for Villa and I think we’ll view it as a great start to the campaign. Plenty at stake this evening.

Team news – West Ham

19:10: If it ain’t broke – don’t fix it. Manuel Pellegrini names an unchanged side after their 2-0 win over Norwich.

Summer signing Sebastien Haller leads the line with Felipe Anderson, Manuel Lansing and Andriy Yarmolenko in behind.

Team news – Aston Villa

19:05: Aston Villa make two changes from the 1-0 defeat by Crystal Palace before the international break.

Dean Smith is without the suspended Trezeguet, so Anwar el Ghazi takes his place out wide. The wonderfully named Marvelous Nakamba replaces Douglas Luiz in midfield.

The sides

19:00: West Ham unchanged from the win over Norwich. Full analysis coming up. Soon. Well, once I’ve finished my lasagne…

Aston Villa XI: Heaton, Guilbert, Engels, Mings, Taylor, Nakamba, Grealish, Jota, McGinn, El Ghazi, Wesley.

Subs: Steer, Elmohamady, Konsa, Hourihane, Lansbury, Luiz, Davis.

West Ham XI: Fabianski, Fredericks, Diop, Ogbonna, Masuaku, Rice, Noble, Yarmolenko, Lanzini, Anderson, Haller.

Subs: Jimenez, Balbuena, Zabaleta, Wilshere, Fornals, Snodgrass, Ajeti.

Chilly, Paulo?

18:58: Just been flicking through the early pictures on our system. Stumbled upon this one of Pablo Zabaleta, who looks absolutely freezing!

It’s a tropical 14 degrees in Aston tonight – you would think he’d be used to that after nine years in Manchester!

Team news and line-ups coming any moment now.

Evening…

18:55: Hello everyone and welcome to our LIVE coverage of Aston Villa vs West Ham from Villa Park.

We’ve had a rather eventful weekend of football – none more than Norwich’s famous win over champions Manchester City. Wish I’d had a quid or two on that one…

Watford showed their cojones (not literally) against Arsenal while Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool and Tottenham gained maximum points.

But I think this one tonight is the very definition of a proper game of football.

West Ham travel to Aston Villa with a chance to draw level on points with Manchester City and jump into third position. Quite an incentive I would suggest…

WEST HAM vs ASTON VILLA – TEAM NEWS

Aston Villa will be without forward Jonathan Kodjia for the next three weeks after fracturing his cheekbone in training.

Dean Smith is also without James Chester, Matt Targett and the suspended Trezeguet, who was dismissed against Crystal Palace before the international break.

Manuel Pellegrini has no fresh injury concerns but will obviously be without Michail Antonio, who is expected to miss the remainder of the calendar year.