When West Ham visit Aston Villa today, the home side will be celebrating an anniversary of sorts.
This weekend marks exactly a year since Steven Gerrard was sacked by Villa for taking nine points from their opening 11 games of last season. The former England midfielder was succeeded three days later by Unai Emery, and Villa have never looked back.
When Gerrard was sacked, there were just two points between Villa and West Ham near the foot of the table, and the same margin separates the sides ahead of this weekend’s game, albeit in dramatically different circumstances.
Villa have been transformed under Emery from a rabble into a well-drilled, often-exhilarating side, and the state of the two clubs a year on from the Spaniard’s appointment is another reminder of the job David Moyes has done — and continues to do.
Villa needed a whole new vision and project under a celebrated coach to go from relegation battlers to European challengers, but Moyes has altered the mood and trajectory at West Ham with hard work and some smart signings, returning the Hammers to where they were in the two seasons before last.
Moyes is durable and capable of keeping players onside during tough spells, as he proved at Everton, who often yo-yoed up and down the table when he was in charge.
Villa and West Ham today are in similar positions: ambitious, upwardly-mobile, buoyed by European competition and among a cohort of clubs — with Brighton and Newcastle — who believe breaking up the so-called ‘big six’ is a realistic possibility.
Both claret and blue clubs should be more bullish about securing Champions League football this season than ever before, not least because fifth place may be enough for a spot at Europe’s top table next season, while Manchester United and Chelsea are yet to convince.
Key to their chances of gatecrashing the top five is how each handles the Thursday-Sunday schedule of European football, with Villa back in the Conference League mid-week and West Ham facing a trip to the cauldron of Olympiacos.
Villa have won 10 straight League games at Villa Park and scored 13 goals in three home League games this season, including a 6-1 routing of Brighton — statistics which are likely to give Moyes pause. This game, though, could genuinely be classed a ‘six-pointer’ and one in which West Ham need a result if they are to keep progressing.
