This should be an interesting game. All eyes will be on the Argentinian pairing of Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano heralded as the new Messiahs by the Upton Park faithful. There’s no doubt that these two should make a difference, but they’ll need to adjust to the speed of the Premiership and this could take a little time. So we shouldn’t expect instant results from these two, but they clearly have a lot of class. Bobby Zamora is scoring goals for fun at the moment and he has currently bagged 4 so far and he has scored in every game.

With Dean Ashton still on the sidelines, he should be leading the attack again with Tevez beside him. Zamora is a good bet to get on the score sheet again because when strikers are hot it’s best to follow them. Villa have started well and come into the game with two wins and a draw, the latest being their 2-0 victory at home to Newcastle. They won’t be fearful of the Hammers and their key player could be Stilian Petrov who Martin O’Neill will know from his days at Celtic and he should want to impress in his first big TV game.

Milan Baros should return up front and he’s a 7/1 chance to score first. Villa got trounced 4-0 by the Hammers last season in the corresponding fixture, but that won’t be happening again. There’s a togetherness to this Villa side which you have to like and they’ll see the addition of Trevez and Mascherano as a weakness which they will want to exploit. New players need time to bed in and you can bet your bottom dollar that O’Neill will have a game plan to take full advantage.  I think the Martin O'Neil bandwagon can put a dampener on West Ham's optimism over their new signings by securing a tight away win. At odds of 13/5 with Extrabet, who will offer all new customers a free £25 bet, get on the Villa.