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Dan Coker's Match Preview

Match Preview: Aston Villa v West Ham

Blast from the past

Engelbert Humperdinck was number one with ‘Release Me’, Don Murray, Carita and Patrick Troughton were in UK cinemas in The Viking Queen and British Fleet Air Arm and Royal Air Force aircraft bombed and sank the grounded supertanker SS Torrey Canyon following a disastrous oil spill as the Hammers recorded a 2-0 First Division victory on the 28th March 1967 in front of 22,011 at Villa Park.

19-year-old centre-half Paul Heffer and 20-year-old left-back Bill Kitchener made only their fourth appearances for the club while Martin Peters was pushed up front to partner Geoff Hurst. Indeed, it was Hurst who proved to be the Hammers hero as he scored both goals to give the Irons their third consecutive win following a 2-1 Good Friday home win over Villa in the reverse fixture four days earlier, and a 3-2 home win over Burnley on Easter Saturday. Heffer would go on to work for the West Ham Academy for over 30 years and is now a Club Ambassador.

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For the Hammers, knocked out of the FA Cup in the third round by Third Division Swindon and beaten in the semi-finals of the League Cup by West Brom, the three consecutive league wins saw them move into the top ten in the table. However, no wins, one draw and seven defeats from the season’s remaining eight games saw the club slump down the division, despite the presence of three players who had won the World Cup the previous summer.

West Ham would end the 1966/67 season in 16th position, while Aston Villa would close the campaign in 21st place, and were relegated. Hurst was voted Hammer of the Year for the second consecutive season, with captain Bobby Moore runner-up. Manchester United won the First Division title and Tottenham won the FA Cup.

Sadly, three members from each side that day are no longer with us. For the Hammers, Moore passed away in 1993, John Charles in 2002 and Peter Brabrook in 2016. For Villa, John Sleeuwenhoek died in 1989, while Barry Stobart and Peter Broadbent passed away within five weeks of each other in 2013.

Aston Villa: Colin Withers, Mick Wright, John Sleeuwenhoek, Charlie Aitken, Dave Pountney, Lew Chatterley, Mike Tindall, Johnny MacLeod, Peter Broadbent, Barry Stobart, Willie Anderson.

West Ham United: Jim Standen, John Charles, Paul Heffer, Bobby Moore, Bill Kitchener, Peter Brabrook, Eddie Bovington, Ronnie Boyce, Johnny Sissons (Harry Redknapp), Martin Peters, Geoff Hurst.

Club Connections

Former Villans Carlos Sanchez and Robert Snodgrass return to Villa Park while ex-Hammer Henri Lansbury welcomes his former club. Other players who have appeared for both clubs include:

Goalkeepers: David James, Mervyn Day, Les Sealey.

Defenders: Bill Askew, Arthur Marjeram, James Collins, Gary Charles.

Midfielders: Thomas Hitzlsperger, Tommy Southren, Nigel Reo-Coker, Nolberto Solano, Stewart Downing, Ray Houghton, Franz Carr, Fred Norris, Alan Curbishley, Tony Scott.

Strikers: Carlton Cole, John Carew, Marlon Harewood, Robbie Keane, Frank McAvennie, Peter Kyle, Phil Woosnam.

Today’s focus though is on a midfielder who appeared for Aston Villa late in his career after two spells at West Ham United. Joe Cole was born in Paddington on the 8th November 1981 and was a prodigious young talent who was linked with a £10m move to Manchester United before he’d even made his professional debut. Likened to Paul Gascoigne, Cole made his debut at the age of 17 in January 1999 in a 1-1 FA Cup draw at home against Swansea; his league debut arrived eight days later in a 4-1 defeat at Old Trafford. Cole was a key figure in the Hammers’ FA Youth Cup winning team in 1999 and also played his part in the senior team’s InterToto Cup success later that summer. His first goal for the club came in a 3-2 League Cup win at Birmingham in November 1999 while his first league strike came in the 5-4 win over Bradford in February 2000.

Cole scored five goals in 2000/01, including one in the 3-0 win at Coventry and strikes in the 1-1 home draws with Bradford and Coventry. He also notched crucial goals in the 3-1 home win over Derby and 3-0 home victory over Southampton as the under-performing Hammers secured their survival in the top flight the weekend before Harry Redknapp’s departure.

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Cole made his England debut on 25th May 2001 in a 4-0 friendly win over Mexico at Derby’s Pride Park and scored his first goal under new Hammers manager Glenn Roeder in the 3-0 FA Cup third round win at Macclesfield in January 2002. The skilful midfielder was part of England’s 2002 World Cup squad and got his 2002/03 campaign off to a flyer, scoring from distance to give the Irons the lead against champions Arsenal only for the Gunners to eventually claim a 2-2 draw at Upton Park. The season was a turbulent one, with Cole one of the few players to emerge with credit from a campaign which would end in relegation. Joey also scored in the 2-1 home defeat to Birmingham, the 2-2 draw at Middlesbrough, the 3-2 FA Cup third round home win over Nottingham Forest and the 2-2 home draw with Newcastle. He was named captain by Roeder in January 2003 and was voted Hammer of the Year by the club’s supporters at the season’s end. Cole scored his first England goal in his tenth appearance for his country on 3rd June 2003 in a 2-1 friendly win over Serbia & Montenegro at Leicester’s Walkers Stadium.

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The 21-year-old Cole left West Ham United in the summer of 2003 to sign for Chelsea in a £6.6m deal, having scored 13 goals in 150 appearances for the Hammers. He earned himself a place in the 2005/06 PFA Team of the Year and started all five of England’s matches at the 2006 World Cup, scoring a stunning, dipping volley in a 2-2 Group B draw against Sweden, in Cologne on 20th June 2006. In 2007/08, he won the Chelsea Player of the Year Award and played in the Champions League Final – he also scored home and away against West Ham that season, refusing to celebrate his strike in Chelsea’s 4-0 win at Upton Park in March 2008. After seven years at Stamford Bridge in which he won three Premier League titles, three FA Cups, two League Cups, two Community Shields and was a Champions League finalist, Cole joined Roy Hodgson’s Liverpool on a free transfer in the summer of 2010. Earlier that summer, Cole had won the last of his 56 England caps at his third World Cup – he had scored ten goals for his country.

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After a difficult start to life on Merseyside, Cole spent the 2011/12 season on loan at French side Lille but, after returning to Liverpool for the first half of the following season, 31-year-old Joey returned to the Boleyn Ground in early January 2013, signing for Sam Allardyce’s Hammers on a free transfer. He set up both goals on his second debut for the club as another ex-Villa man, James Collins, scored twice in a 2-2 FA Cup third round draw with Manchester United and scored himself in the 1-1 home draw with QPR and the 3-2 home defeat to Tottenham.

Cole started the 2013/14 season with a bang, notching the Hammers’ first goal of the campaign in a 2-0 home win over Cardiff in August 2013 before scoring in the 3-0 win over Fulham in November. His final goal for the Hammers came in the 3-3 home draw with West Brom in late December 2013. Cole’s last appearance for West Ham came in the 2-0 defeat at Manchester City in May 2014 and he left the club later that summer after his contract expired, signing for Aston Villa. Cole had scored five goals in 37 appearances in his second spell in east London, taking his totals for the Hammers to 18 goals in 187 matches. The video below shows all 18 of these goals.

Cole made his Villa debut under Paul Lambert in a 3-0 defeat at Everton on 18th October 2014; he scored his only goal for the club in a 1-1 draw at Burnley on 29th November of the same year. Beset by hamstring injuries, he made 15 appearances in 2014/15 but was an unused substitute as Villa lost the FA Cup Final 4-0 to Arsenal later that month, by which time Tim Sherwood had taken over as manager. Cole’s 16th and final appearance for Aston Villa came in a 5-3 League Cup second round win over Notts County at Villa Park on 25th August 2015.

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Following a spell with Coventry which was later made permanent, Cole ended his career playing for Tampa Bay Rowdies in the USL, the second tier of the American soccer pyramid – he retired in November 2018. Now 37, Cole is a technical academy coach at Chelsea.

Referee

Monday’s referee will be Mike Dean; 2019/20 is Dean’s 20th as a Premier League referee. Since West Ham United achieved promotion back to the top flight in 2012 Dean has refereed 24 of our league matches, officiating in ten wins for the Hammers, seven draws (including our last visit to Villa Park on Boxing Day 2015) and seven defeats.

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Dean refereed our final match at the Boleyn when we famously triumphed 3-2 over Manchester United. His decision to send off Sofiane Feghouli just 15 minutes into our 2-0 defeat to the Red Devils in January 2017 was later rescinded. Dean’s two Hammers appointments last season were the goalless home draw with Chelsea last September and our 2-0 win at Fulham in December. His most recent Hammers appointment was our 5-0 opening day home defeat to Manchester City.

The VAR Official is Martin Atkinson.

Possible line-ups

Aston Villa will be without injured captain James Chester and left-back Matt Targett, while centre-forward Jonathan Kodjia also misses out with a fractured cheekbone. Winger Trezeguet is suspended. Villa have lost just two of their last 18 home league games against West Ham, winning eight and drawing eight. However, they have won just one of their last 16 Monday Premier League matches drawing five and losing ten.

For West Ham United, Winston Reid and Michail Antonio remain unavailable – Antonio is unlikely to return until after Christmas. The Hammers have failed to score in five of their last nine trips to Villa Park. Hammers boss Manuel Pellegrini has won five of his past six matches against Villa, drawing the other.

Possible Aston Villa XI: Heaton; Guilbert, Engels, Mings, Taylor; Douglas Luiz, McGinn, Grealish; El Ghazi, Wesley, Jota.

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

Enjoy the game – Come On You Irons!

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