Momentum Broken At Villa Park

Since West Ham United finally found consistency in January, they have only lost away at Chelsea and Liverpool. They would have liked to have taken something back home from Villa Park on Sunday afternoon, but Aston Villa had other ideas and beat them 2-0.

Nuno Espírito Santo initially named an unchanged side from the one that picked up a valuable point at home to Manchester City eight days earlier but Jean-Clair Todibo picked up an injury just before kick-off, meaning Freddie Potts was drafted into the starting line-up and featured for the first time since being sent-off in the Emirates FA Cup fourth-round tie at Burton Albion, while Oliver Scarles was back in the matchday squad after recovering from the minor injury that kept him out of the meeting with the Citizens.

Youngster Mohamadou Kanté was amongst the substitutes, while the Hammers’ Head-Coach chose to include two goalkeepers with Finlay Herrick joining Alphonse Areola on the bench.

The Irons started the game back in the bottom three, following last Sunday’s results and were keen to build on the point gained last time out.

Although the Villains went in front as early as the fifteenth minute, the Irons did have a degree of control in the early stages but once the home side had found their rhythm, it was hard to get possession of the ball. To be fair, it was only down to excellent defending from Konstantinos Mavropanos that ensured they weren’t behind earlier. However, John McGinn’s goal really set the tone for the rest of the first-half for the visitors. Having said that though, it may well have been different had Valentín Castellanos found the target with a header after meeting a cross from captain Jarrod Bowen. Unfortunately though, his attempt went just wide of the far post.

The home side went into this game off the back of three straight top-flight defeats but were applying pressure as they searched for a second goal. Amadou Onana should have scored but instead, gave the visitors a reprieve as his shot missed the target, while Oliver Watkins was allowed time and space to run into the area but fortunately for the travelling support, another opportunity was wasted.

Watkins had another chance minutes later, but he still couldn’t score, as visiting goalkeeper Mads Hermansen made a superb save to deny him.

The former Brentford striker was involved in Villa’s next move as he went down in the area following a challenge from Mavropanos. Referee Paul Tierney originally awarded a penalty but was asked by the VAR officials to go and review his decision on the pitchside monitor. After a closer look, he decided to overturn it and West Ham again survived.

Unai Emery’s side continued to play with intensity and Morgan Rogers had a chance to put them further ahead after he raced clear of the visiting defence but as he attempted to send a low cross into the box it was crucially blocked by Bowen. The ball kept falling for the hosts and Matthew Cash was next to try his luck but fortunately, El Hadji Malick Diouf was in the way on this occasion.

Emery has had to answer questions about the selection of Watkins recently, but he was certainly in the mood here and was still trying to get his name on the scoresheet. However, he was unsuccessful again, as his latest attempt went well wide.

The inclusion of Potts meant that Espírito Santo changed his formation and go with a back-four, rather than the three that he deployed against Josep Guardiola’s men and for whatever reason, it just wasn’t working for his team. Bowen then earnt a corner but as soon as it was sent over, it was cleared, meaning the majority inside the stadium were able to see their team launch another counter-attack.

Luck just wasn’t on the side of Watkins here and the ball landed on the top of Hermansen’s net, as he went close again

The away fans had seen a number of much- improved performances recently but their team were yet to find their way into this game. Could they step up to the plate and deliver after the break?

It was no wonder that Espírito Santo wasn’t happy with his team’s performance and he made a double change by withdrawing both Potts, as well as Castellanos and throwing Callum Wilson and Adama Traoré into the fray.

There was a big improvement in West Ham’s play throughout the second-half, but the Villains still looked the sharper of the two sides, even though they were involved in European action just three days previously.

Ross Barkley fashioned the first opportunity after the restart, but his powerful effort was expertly tipped away by Hermansen.

The East Londoners cleared the resulting corner, but it fell to the feet of Cash, who sent another effort towards Hermansen’s goal but thankfully, it didn’t beat the Dane.

When he first arrived at Chelsea at the start of the 2023/24 season, defender Axel Disasi spent the second half of that season on loan at Villa Park and Mavropanos set the Frenchman up to create an equaliser but unfortunately, he couldn’t do so and Emiliano Martínez easily gathered his header.

The Hammers were having their best spell of the game by this point and Bowen set off on a threatening run, but it was unfortunately brought to a premature end as Pau Torres blocked at the key moment. Soon after Pablo Felipe was close to his first goal since arriving at West Ham in January, but he blasted the ball over the bar.

As they had done all afternoon, West Ham would have wished that they had done better while in the ascendancy. No sooner had the home side regained control, they gave their opponents a mountain to climb as they extended their advantage and Watkins had finally made an effort count. On sixty eight minutes, he picked up the pieces and beat Hermansen after the Dane had denied Rogers.

Espírito Santo’s side were thankful that they weren’t punished any further, as it was one-way traffic for the final twenty minutes of the contest.

It was clear to see that Villa had rediscovered their ruthless edge in the game but thankfully, a combination of both Hermansen and Disasi came to their team’s rescue.

Espírito Santo made another double change with seven minutes of normal time remaining, as both Soungoutou Magassa and Kanté took the places of Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Tomáš Souček.

The latest two substitutes weren’t able to make a significant impact, meaning the home faithful were able to watch their team see the game out comfortably which meant that West Ham had blown the chance to get themselves out of the relegation zone ahead of the international break.

They face a big week on their return with two matches in the space of five days with an Emirates FA Cup tie against fellow Premier League side Leeds United taking place before a crucial home match against rock bottom Wolverhampton Wanderers.