West Ham since promoted back to England top flight in season 05/06, have been finished in top half of the table 3  out of 4 seasons. With former Chelsea star player Gianfranco Zola taking over the manager role from Alan Curbishley in Sep 08, he managed to finish the season at 9th place, 2 points better than their previous season.

West Ham started this season opening match with a graceful 2-0 victory away at Wolverhampton. But since then, they only managed to get 4 points out of the next 9 matches. The worst was last match where they actually lead 2-0 first before entering half time with the scoreline of 2-1 with Sunderland’s Jone being send off. But Richardson managed to equalise on the 76th minute for Sunderland to get 1 points.

West Ham will face Aston Villa tonight with a win will moved them out of the relegation zone, while on the other hand, a win for Aston Villa will see them get into top 4. Both side key striker C.Cole and G.Agbonlahor have enjoy a good start with 6 and 5 goals respectively and hopeful to be part of the team for Capello World Cup campaign.

West Ham will be without Dyer, Ashton and Boa Morte but welcome back captain Scott Parker after serving one-match ban. Aston Villa will be without Downing who yet to make his debut and S.Davis, with Milner and Petrov remains doubtful and likely to be feature on Saturday against Bolton at home instead. I predicting a 1-1 draw for this one.