Emerson’s fine header secured West Ham a deserved 1-1 draw with Aston Villa in their Premier League clash at Villa Park.
New Hammers boss Graham Potter had previously lost eight of his games against Aston Villa as a coach – including his first with West Ham in the FA Cup third round 16 days ago – and must have thought he was in for another bad day when Jacob Ramsey (8) gave the hosts an early lead.
His first touch from Ollie Watkins’ pass took the ball past Vladimir Coufal before he slotted home into the far corner as Villa dominated the opening 10 minutes.
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Jacob Ramsey gave Aston Villa an early lead against West Ham
Despite West Ham’s first-half improvement – although they ended it without a shot on target – Villa should have scored again with Youri Tielemans and Watkins both firing wide.
But the game turned for Villa when Tyrone Mings picked up another suspected knee injury. He initially attempted to continue after a seemingly innocuous collision with Mohammed Kudus, but eventually left the field in tears.
Lucas Digne was moved to centre-back in Mings’ absence and struggled, with West Ham looking to take advantage in the second half.
They had the better chances after the break too, Ezri Konsa hooking the ball off the line on the hour before the visitors made the deserved breakthrough 10 minutes later.
It was a fine header from Emerson, floating in at the back post to meet Edson Alvarez’s right-wing cross. There were questions late on too on whether Alvarez should have been sent off for collecting a second yellow card, but the Mexican escaped another booking.
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Emerson headed in at the back post to equalise for West Ham
Potter was then celebrating after what proved to be the final kick of the game when Lucas Paqueta slotted home from a Tomas Soucek pass, but the latter was well offside in the build-up and the flag was raised. It took mere seconds for VAR to agree with the on-field decision.
The point sees West Ham creep further up the table into 13th place. For Aston Villa, they remain four points from the top four although their unbeaten league run at Villa Park now stretches to 11 games. However, there will need to be some improvement on this evidence ahead of their final Champions League game at home to Celtic on Wednesday evening.
More to follow.
