West Ham lineup vs Aston Villa confirmed as Lopetegui gives two players full debuts

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Julen Lopetegui has named his first competitive starting lineup in charge of West Ham United today.

West Ham play host to Aston Villa in the Premier League opener, and Julen Lopetegui has named an extremely strong starting lineup.

The Hammers have spent heavily in the summer transfer window, bringing in eight new players so far.

As a result, expectations are very high indeed at the London Stadium, and getting off to a good start this season will be pivotal.

Joe Cole has predicted a top 10 finish for West Ham this season, and I reckon we’ll be strong contenders for the European spots.

Aston Villa will be no pushovers this evening – they finished fourth in the Premier League table last term, and are a proper outfit under the leadership of Unai Emery.

It should be an absolute cracker under the baking sun in East London today, but what team has Lopetegui gone with?

West Ham lineup vs Aston Villa confirmed

Whilst our pre-season campaign didn’t run perfectly, there were still some encouraging signs on display throughout the summer.

Lopetegui has an incredibly talented group of players to select from this season, and we actually have a proper squad now.

The Hammers starting XI no longer picks itself.

Here’s how Lopetegui has set up his team to take on Villa this evening, as confirmed via the club’s official X account:

Alphonse Areola, Vladimir Coufal, Max Kilman, Konstantinos Mavropanos, Emerson Palmieri, Guido Rodriguez, Tomas Soucek, Lucas Paqueta, Mohammed Kudus, Jarrod Bowen, Michail Antonio

So, Lopetegui has given two players their first competitive starts for West Ham – Max Kilman and Guido Rodriguez.

I am genuinely so excited to see all of our new signings in action against Villa, and hopefully we’ll get to see the likes of Crysencio Summerville, Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Niclas Fullkrug come on in the second-half as well.

We all know how dangerous Villa are, so I don’t expect Lopetegui to set his team up with a ‘gung ho’ mindset.

However, I do expect to see more patterns of play and passing triangles than we witnessed during David Moyes’s tenure at the London Stadium.

The West Ham starting lineup selected by Julen Lopetegui for the clash with Villa is more than good enough to get all three points.

Let’s hope that the boys get the job done…COYI X