CHILLER WILLER
Aston Villa 4 West Ham 1
Aston Villa. This is the team that Moyes does not lose to, whenever his teams play at Villa Park. Now I’ve got that fact out of the way, I can set about describing Villa’s first half goal, scored in the 30th minute by Douglas Luiz.
After pounding the Hammers’ goal for the first half hour, Villa break yet again and Diaby finds Watkins who sets up Luiz to have a crack and his fierce low shot goes in via a deflection off first Ward-Prowse diving in and then Aguerd’s outstretched foot. That’s his six in six at Villa Park, so at least we’ve got that out of the way. But check out Areola’s expression. He looks like he has been mugged, and after a couple of brilliant earlier saves, you can hardly blame him.
Hammers finally begin to come into the game, an appeal for a handball and an overhead from Paquetá the best chances in the final ten minutes of the half. Coufal looks good on the break and his assist stats for the season look ripe for further development.
A win today will catapult West Ham up the table, and so an effective second half performance will be necessary. My thought, no doubt paralleled by all West Ham fans in the stadium and watching nationwide, is to bring on Kudus. Defeat this afternoon is not to be imagined.
West Ham and Aston Villa are both in Europe in the same season for the first time since the 1975-76 season, albeit when there was an early exit for Villa from the UEFA Cup playing the Belgium side Royal Antwerp and getting tonked 5-1 on aggregate in the first round. Hammers also lost to Belgium opposition in Europe that season, but in the final of the Cup Winners Cup, also played in Belgium. So blame Tintin.
Despite my optimistic efforts to imagine an equaliser into existence, Hammers are soon 2-0 down, after Álvarez gives away an unnecessary penalty when Paquetá, cornered by Kamara, can only manage a hospital ball back into the danger zone. The foul is on Konsa and Douglas Luiz dispatches his second of the game past Areola. Great.
Thankfully Álvarez soon makes amends at the other end, finding Bowen, whose pot shot clips the ankle of Torres and squeezes inside Martinez’s right hand post. Another deflected effort, but certainly deserved. This is Bowen’s fifth successive away goal, equalling a Premier League record held by Thierry Henri. Bowen is now in the company of football royalty, and there is clearly more to come. Just maybe not in this match.
Now Hammers begin to assert themselves and take control. Antonio’s strength down the right supports Coufal, and just as West Ham look as though they aren’t out of the game, Watkins runs wide of Zouma and rams the ball high into the net past Areola. It’s Aston Villa’s first attack for 15 minutes, so is bound to effect a major gut punch to the metaphorical West Ham stomach.
And yet Hammers don’t surrender, continuing to pummel the Villa goal, prompted by sterling creative efforts from Ward-Prowse from the corner spot position until finally, the storm dissipates. Leon Bailey makes it four at the other end with a neat sidestep and explosive left foot finish. Just before this, Danny Ings comes on, almost unnoticed.
This is Villa’s eleventh straight home win, equalling a club record from 1981, when they last won the league. It’s also their first victory over West Ham in eight and a half years. They are just behind the top two, as Hammers might have been had they managed to win this. West Ham can’t afford to be too bothered about it with a midweek trip to Greece awaiting them, so this one will just have to be put in the bin and forgotten about as soon as possible.
13 Alphonse Areola, 33 Emerson, 4 Kurt Zouma (captain), 5 Vladimir Coufal, 19 Edison Álvarez, 27 Nayef Aguerd, 7 James Ward Prowse, 11 Lucas Paquetá, 28 Tomas Souček, 20 Jarrod Bowen, 9 Michail Antonio
Substitutes: 14 Mohammed Kudus, 18 Danny Ings, 8 Pablo Fornals,
Goalscorer: Jarrod Bowen
