West Ham confirm a key star will miss Aston Villa clash but visitors without three. West Ham welcome Aston Villa to the London Stadium for their opening game of the new Premier League season on Saturday evening. There are some intriguing subplots to West Ham’s opening day clash with Aston Villa. It is a first competitive game for new Hammers head coach Julen Lopetegui.
And he will be facing his fellow Basque Unai Emery as he takes the first step in trying to emulate the magnificent job he has done at Aston Villa. Last season Emery admitted he had used West Ham as inspiration for Villa’s rise since taking over from Steven Gerrard.
The Hammers made Europe three seasons in a row – no easy task in the fiercely competitive Premier League – including Europa League semi and quarter-finals either side of a first major trophy win for 43 years. Aston Villa fell short of matching West Ham’s achievement of winning the Europa Conference League. But they went one better than the Irons by qualifying for the Champions League.
Lopetegui and Emery have been among the busiest in the summer transfer market with the Hammers and Villa making some eye-catching signings. So all eyes will be on the live TV game with high levels of interest in the new-look squads.
A further subplot has been added to the clash by West Ham’s on-off pursuit of Aston Villa’s wantaway forward Jhon Duran. Duran angered Aston Villa by doing a crossed Hammers gesture to West Ham fans on social media amid speculation he was going to sign for the east Londoners.
Negotiations hit stalemate and West Ham turned their attentions to Germany striker Niclas Fullkrug instead. However, a journalist has confirmed to Hammers News this week that West Ham still want to sign Villa’s Duran on loan.
Lopetegui and Emery have plenty of options now.
But how are the two sides looking when it comes to availability for Saturday’s London Stadium clash?
Well West Ham have confirmed a key star will miss the Aston Villa clash but the visitors are without three. Lopetegui has been speaking ahead of the clash and says he doesn’t have any bad news about injuries.
But the club’s official preview for the game confirms fundamental midfield star Edson Alvarez will miss out. The Mexican midfield enforcer suffered a hamstring injury in his country’s Copa America opener over the summer.
It ended his tournament and was expected to rule him out for between six to eight weeks. West Ham has twice stated Alvarez is unlikely to play having been kept out of pre-season due to the injury.
“With potentially only Edson Alvarez absent after the Mexico captain suffered a hamstring injury while in action for his country at the Copa America, Lopetegui has up to 25 senior players to choose from,” West Ham said in the preview.
Midfield duo Alvarez and Kamara out of opener
In a separate article on team news, the Hammers doubled down on Alvarez’s likely absence for the Aston Villa clash. Villa on the other hand are – according to West Ham – definitely missing France midfielder Boubacar Kamara.
He suffered a serious knee injury in February against Manchester United. But defender Tyrone Mings is also expected to miss the Hammers clash having not featured during pre-season after missing the majority of the 2023/24 campaign.
Back-up Villa goalkeeper Robin Olsen was also withdrawn through injury against RB Leipzig at the start of the month and has not played since, making him a doubt for Saturday’s squad.
“Fortunately, at the moment, we don’t have bad news about the injuries,” Lopetegui said.“It’s true that we have to be aware about the kind of preparation that the players had, because they arrived late and so on, so some are more ready than others. So, we have to be aware about this, and tomorrow (Friday) we are going to have more information about this but until now, I think that all of them, they are going to be ready.”
There promises to be a host of debuts on show given the number of signings made by both clubs. For West Ham Max Kilman, Füllkrug, Crysencio Summerville, Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Jean-Clair Todibo, Guido Rodríguez and Luis Guilherme could make their first competitive appearances.
