ASTON SEVILLA
West Ham 2 Aston Villa 1
This is a big week for the club with the second leg of the Europa League last 16 tie against Sevilla, and a deficit that needs overcoming, on Thursday. After the first leg defeat Hammers need to bounce back against Steven Gerrard’s in form Aston Villa. Its a game that is to prove tougher than might have been imagined.
Martin O’Neill was the last manager to enjoy a run of victories that Gerrard currently has under his belt, but they nearly always lose when they play on Sundays. Coutinho seems to be the player of the moment, and almost scores after twenty minutes but for a vital last second interception by Kurt Zouma.
Michail Antonio is struggling and is taken off a few minutes into the second half, to be replaced by a returning Andriy Yarmolenko, his first game for the Hammers since his country was invaded. A strange situation for the fans, ready to forget the histrionics after a dive up at Kidderminster in the FA Cup. All is now forgiven.
Ings then has Villa’s best chance of the game four minutes later from a low corner that Fabinaski deflects brilliantly onto the post and away when it seemed to have beaten him. On the hour Johnson wins a corner which first Zouma and then Dawson only just fail to see their successive headers hit the back of the net.
Ten minutes later and the move of the match finally unfolds. Dawson finds Benrahma wide on the left and his jabbed pass into the area finds Yarmolenko with a yard of space which he uses effortlessly to prod the ball past Martinez. Eight minutes from time Rice abandons his defensive position to head up the field where he finds Benrahma again out on the left. The Algerian then picks out Fornals in the area, who fires in an unexpected but welcome second, and although Ramsay hits a consolation in injury time after a slip from Zouma, it proves to be just that, and Hammers are back to their winning ways just in time for the big European game on Thursday night.
1 Lucasz Fabianski, 3 Aaron Cresswell, 4 Kurt Zouma, 31 Ben Johnson, 41 Declan Rice (c), 15 Craig Dawson, 8 Pablo Fornals, 10 Manuel Lanzini, 28 Tomas Souček, 9 Michail Antonio, 22 Saïd Benrahma
Substitutes:, 7 Andriy Yarmolenko, 23 Issa Diop, 24 Ryan Fredericks
Goalscorers, Andriy Yarmolenko, Pablo Fornals
