Emerson’s fine header earned West Ham a deserved 1-1 draw against 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 manager – 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) brought gave the hosts an early lead.
His first touch from Ollie Watkins’ pass took the ball past Vladimir Coufalo before the latter fired into the far corner as Villa dominated the opening 10 minutes.
Despite West Ham’s improvement in the first half – although they finished it without a shot on target – Villa should have scored again with Youri Tielemans and Watkins shooting wide.
But the game turned for Villa when Tyrone Mings suffered another suspected knee injury. He first tried to continue after a seemingly innocuous collision with Mohammed Kudus, but ended up leaving the field in tears.
Lucas Digne was moved to centre-back in the absence of Mings and struggled as West Ham looked to capitalize in the second half.
They had the better chances and after the break, Ezri Konsa knocked over from the line on the hour mark before the visitors got the breakthrough they deserved 10 minutes later.
It was a good header from Emerson, who flew to the back post and met Edson Alvarez’s cross from the right wing. There were also questions late on as to whether Alvarez should have been sent off for picking up a second yellow card, but the Mexican avoided another yellow card.
Potter then celebrated after what proved to be the last kick of the game when Lucas Paqueta headed in a pass from Tomas Soucek, but the latter was well offside in the build-up and the flag was raised. It only took seconds for the VAR to agree with the decision on the field.
This moves West Ham further up the table to 13th place. For Aston Villa, they remain four points off the top four, although their league unbeaten run at Villa Park now stretches to 11 games. However, little improvement will be needed on this evidence ahead of the final Champions League game at home to Celtic on Wednesday night.
More to come.
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