Good afternoon and welcome to live coverage of the claret and blue derby between West Ham, who finished ninth last season, and Aston Villa, who were fourth. It’s also a Basque-born derby, a meeting of former Sevilla managers. a reprise from 2022-23 when Julen Lopetegui was at Wolves and took only a point off Unai Emery in two games against the Villa. Both clubs have spent handsomely over the summer, West Ham spending, according to Transfermarkt, £126 million and Villa £150 million to overhaul teams to kick on, in Villa’s case, in their first Champions League campaign since they tried to defend the European Cup in 1982-83.
Villa have had to sacrifice Douglas Luiz and Moussa Diaby to broaden the squad by bringing in Amadou Onana, Ian Maatsen, Jaden Philogene, Samuel Iling-Junior, Enzo Barrenchea and Ross Barkley while West Ham have offloaded Flynn Downes, Saif Benrahma and Thilo Kehrer and recruited two solid new centre-backs in Jean-Clair Todibo and Max Kilman, a starting right-back in Aaron Wan-Bissaka with Niclas Füllkrug, Crysencio Summerville and Luis Guilhereme bolstering their forward options.
Villa, who lost on opening day last season in a deceptive 5-1 defeat at St James’ Park, have not beaten West Ham away for 13 years. Yer Actual drew away at Bournemouth in their first match of last season but won their first at home, beating Chelsea 3-1 and Lopetegui is thinking big but taking small steps. “Our target is; don’t put limits on our dreams,” he said. “After, we will see. Let’s see what is going to happen. Maybe you can ask me in three or four months and we are going to be clearer where we are.
“The most important thing is arriving in the last 10 matches in a good way. One league is a marathon. Each match is one kilometre. There are a lot. Now we have to put the focus on the first kilometre. Football is like this, step by step.”