Aston Villa predicted line-up vs. West Ham: three major changes made as midfield duo miss out

Aston Villa will be looking to get their Champions League qualification bid back on track when they come up against West Ham on Sunday afternoon. The Villans slumped to a 4-0 defeat at the hands of Tottenham Hotspur last weekend, and now know that they will slip out of the top four if Spurs can win their lingering game in hand.

As such, it is vital that Unai Emery's men return to winning ways in the Premier League, and they will be hopeful of doing exactly that following a commanding 4-0 victory over Ajax in the Europa Conference League on Thursday evening. Ollie Watkins, Leon Bailey, Jhon Duran, and Moussa Diaby scored the goals in that one.

For their part, West Ham also progressed in Europe in midweek, seeing off SC Frieburg in a similarly dominant fashion courtesy of a 5-0 trouncing at the London Stadium. Prior to that, the Hammers had been on a decent run in domestic competition too, and head into the weekend off the back of a three-game unbeaten streak in the Premier League.

But how will both sides line up on Sunday afternoon? We've taken a look at their latest team and predicted starting XIs below...

Aston Villa Team News

Aston Villa continue to struggle with a number of long term absences involving key first team players. Tyrone Mings, for instance, is sidelined with an ACL injury, as is Emi Buendia. Neither is expected to play again this season. Likewise, Boubacar Kamara underwent knee surgery in February and is likely to be ruled out until the autumn.

Elsewhere, Jacob Ramsey could be in contention to make his return to Emery's match day squad, with the Spaniard stating prior to Villa's clash against Ajax that: 'He is still not available, but hopefully not for a long time. We are going to wait every day to see how he is feeling, but he will not be available tomorrow.'

Meanwhile, Ollie Watkins, who limped off during the first half against the Dutch giants, is not expected to be on the treatment table for long. Emery explained: 'The injury is not more than a cut on the knee. Maybe he is available for Sunday, I think maybe we have to wait for tomorrow and Saturday, but it is a cut.'

Villa's only other notable absence will be John McGinn, who was sent off against Tottenham, and will therefore serve a suspension that will run until early April.

Aston Villa Predicted XI

Emi Martinez; Matty Cash, Diego Carlos, Pau Torres, Lucas Digne; Leon Bailey, Youri Tielemans, Douglas Luiz, Jacob Ramsey; Moussa Diaby, Ollie Watkins.

West Ham Team News

By comparison, West Ham currently boast a relatively clean bill of health. The Hammers' only real injury concerns are Maxwel Cornet and Emerson Palmieri, with both players working towards potential returns this weekend. Speaking about the latter in particular, David Moyes said: 'We'll just need to see how Emerson is, as we're not sure how he is yet, so that would be probably our main one.'

West Ham Predicted XI

Alphonse Areola; Vladimír Coufal, Konstantinos Mavropanos, Kurt Zouma, Aaron Cresswell; Tomas Soucek, Edson Alvarez; Jarrod Bowen, Lucas Paqueta, Mohammed Kudus; Michail Antonio.