FA CUP FRIDAY: The Striker previews ASTON VILLA v WEST HAM with a recommended BETDAQ bet.
ASTON VILLA V WEST HAM
8pm The FA Cup Third Round continues on Friday on BETDAQ Betting Exchange, and the ITV pick of Aston Villa hosting West Ham just got a whole lot more interesting as West Ham decided to pull the trigger and sack Julen Lopetegui this week! The decision came on Wednesday, and to be honest it wouldn’t have been a surprise to anyone – we heard stories at the start of the December that “Lopetegui had X amount of games to save his job” and once you start hearing stories like that, you know that never ends well. Ironically, West Ham got managed two wins and two draws from their next four games once we saw those headlines! However, although it hasn’t been announced at the time of writing, the decision is largely due to Graham Potter seemingly keen to take the job.
That would be a big coup for West Ham – Potter is an excellent manager and to be honest, he could have aimed higher. I know he wasn’t a success at Chelsea, but we know Chelsea have always had a lot of issues in the background with managers and Potter achieved a lot at Brighton. They have definitely gone backwards since he left too. It will be interesting to see do we get a reaction from the players here, and does their performance level change. West Ham have had issues at the back for a while now – they have the fourth worst defensive figure in the Premier League this season. They finished last season with the worst.
Aston Villa have been ticking along under Unai Emery again this season. They’ve obviously went a little backwards compared to last season, but it was always going to be difficult for them to stay in the Top Four in the Premier League. They’ve had some fantastic results in the Champions League, and you could definitely see them going on a good run in the FA Cup too. They were struggling to create good quality chances towards the start of the season, but their average xG created has been increasing over the last few weeks. Aston Villa come into the game as the odds on favourites at 1.74 with West Ham 4.6 and the draw is 4.7 at the time of writing.
I feel if things didn’t change this week with West Ham finally pulling the trigger and sacking Lopetegui, I would be interested in backing Villa at 1.74. They have been much better this season, and West Ham continue to be so poor at the back. As I said above though, it will be interesting to see does the squad react to the manager going – I’m happy to stay out of the match odds market here. West Ham have been all over the place at times at the back, and Villa should get plenty of chances here. Villa have been quite sloppy at the back this season too; they only clean sheet they’ve kept in the last 13 Premier League games was against Southampton. Both Teams To Score is a confident bet here at 1.69 in what should be an open game.
The Striker Says:
Three points win Both Teams To Score at 1.69 with BETDAQ BETTING EXCHANGE
You can view all markets here -> https://betdaq.biz/AvlWhu
