VILLA THRILLER
Aston Villa 0 West Ham 1
It’s West Ham’s worst start to a season for 51 years as they face their 1000th Premier League game. Houston, we have a problem. Stewart Houston, that is. Yes, a defender who played for Manchester United and Brentford, and will be aware that Brentford beat Manchester United 4-0. Then Manchester United beat Liverpool 2-1 the following week. Now they’ve won again. Liverpool, who won just one game in the Premier League… until yesterday. In their first four. Then they won 9-0, equalling the greatest ever Premier League victory. Arsenal were bottom this time last year; now they’re top. And West Ham have lost their first three games without scoring a goal. Do you see the pattern? Yes, of course you do. You’re not one of those umbilical cords that yank on misery every time their side loses a few games? No, I guess you wouldn’t be reading this if you were.
So Hammers finally start a game with Scamacca, the Italian Stallion. It’s wise, as his previous two starts have accounted for the only two wins this season. Then there is Kehrer, and Emerson. And a fully-fit Michail Antonio on the bench. The bench is the real indicator of how far the club have progressed as the current transfer window ends. And the small matter of Paqueta from Lyon. Remember him from last season? He’s Brazilian, and might even be in position to face Spurs on Wednesday. Think on that for a while.
I’m the meantime there is the small matter of dispatching Aston Villa. On their own turf. Now how are we going to do that?
Moyes is starting with three at the back and a busy five man midfield behind Bowen and Scamacca. What could possibly go wrong? Villa have the ball in the net after just thirteen minutes. An outswinging corner from Lucas Digne proves just that, and although Ezri Konsa stabs home after Coutinho’s goalbound flick comes back off the post, the eagle-eyed linesman has spotted its extra field-of-play trajectory, and the ref awards a goal kick.
Zouma and Kehrer are otherwise solid at the back for Hammers, and Fabianski isn’t troubled for the rest of the half. Gerrard looks like a sacked manager walking throughout, his Harry Palmer raincoat blistered with fleckets of afternoon rainfall. Moyes looks ponderously around him, wondering from where the much needed goal might come.
Hammers raise the temperature early in the second half, and Scamacca’s first shot is more fierce than it looks after Calum Chambers’s sliding challenge has taken the sting out of it. Bowen is then put through by Fornals and, though he sidesteps the sliding lunge of Matty Cash, his switch lacks the elegance to afford him the necessary finish, Digne blocks the effort and the keeper grabs gratefully at the loose ball.
Then, with fifteen minutes left, the goal. Breaking forward from the centre of midfield, Rice is found by Zouma and he picks out Fornals, who takes a touch before unleashing a shot which deflects spectacularly off Konsa‘s outstretched boot, over the keeper Martinez, and into the roof of the net.
The odds on Steven Gerrard becoming the first managerial casualty of the season have narrowed, not helped by the chorus of boos meted out by the Villa fans after the game, though tempered somewhat by Scott Parker’s Bournemouth team’s 9-0 reverse at Anfield yesterday afternoon. Meanwhile David Moyes’ air punch at the final whistle suggests his focus for achievements throughout the challenging season ahead have strengthened.
1 Lucasz Fabianski, 2 Ben Johnson, 3 Aaron Cresswell, 4 Kurt Zouma, 8 Pablo Fornals, 24 Thilo Kehrer, 28 Tomas Souček, 33 Emerson, 7 Gianluca Scamacca, 20 Jarrod Bowen, 41 Declan Rice (captain)
Substitutes: 5 Vladimir Coufal, 22 Saïd Benrahma, 9 Michail Antonio
Goalscorer: Pablo Fornals
