West Ham v Aston Villa Tips | 2nd February 2016

UPTON Park is the venue for the live game on Tuesday night as West Ham host Aston Villa. Chris Graham (@chrisgraham79) lends us his thoughts.

West Ham v Aston Villa | Tuesday 19:45 | BT Sport 1

It's one of the most exciting sides in the division against the worst team in the section, but you'd never know by the odds eh? If bookmakers are going to offer a 10/11 carrot over West Ham I'm going to have to present a case for backing it.

The Hammers lie 6th in the table with just five defeats from their 23 league matches. That's the same number of losses as Man City and Arsenal have picked up this season.

Slaven Bilic has come in and re-energised the club after their poor second half of last season. The likes of Dimitri Payet and Manuel Lanzini have become symbols of this exciting new era there.

Sadly there's nothing exciting about Aston Villa this season. Six points adrift at the bottom of the table and 10 away from 17th place, relegation is a cert and Villa will be missing from the elite next season.

Their season really did end on Saturday when they were tore apart by Man City in the FA Cup. The tonic of a good run in that competition has been expunged.

Since the 29th of November Aston Villa have picked up just two wins (one against a fourth-tier side) while West Ham have lost just one match within that period. It's certainly contrasting.

Another key factor in West Ham's favour is their excellent home record. They haven't lost at Upton Park since the 22nd August, that's 10 games unbeaten.

I think one has a duty to get involved with West Ham at odds of 10/11. They lie 14 positions above Villa in the table and have 23 more points to their name.

Despite confidence in them grabbing a win I think this might be a low-scoring affair. Despite Saturday's shambles Villa have tightened things up at the back. That result was the first time they'd conceded more than one goal in almost a month.

West Ham likewise can be a little shy at home with five of their last seven home games seeing fewer than three goals. They've had three clean sheets in that period.

I'll back West Ham at 10/11 but also top that up with a bet on them at 11/4 with Betway that they win in a match involving Under 2.5 Goals. It seems a logical choice.