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.
When asked for an update on Mings after the game, Aston Villa boss Unai Emery told Sky Sports: “I don’t know, but hopefully it’s not a lot.
“We have a structure in our build-up and with the left centre-back it’s very important with Mings or Pau Torres. Lucas can play with his left foot, but he needs confidence to play more in this position.”
Tyrone Mings left the field with another suspected knee injury
The Hammers had the better chances after the break, 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 saw West Ham creep further up the table into 13th place, although they later dropped to 14th after Manchester United’s win at Fulham.
Aston Villa remain four points from the top four with their unbeaten league run at Villa Park now stretching 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.
Player of the match: Lucas Paqueta
Paqueta shone for West Ham and was named as Jamie Carragher’s player of the match. After the game, the Sky Sports pundit said: “West Ham really got themselves back into the game and a lot of that was through Paqueta.
“I thought he was fantastic. I always think with top attacking players – of which he is one in the Premier League right now – you can’t bully them. They’ve got a physique and power about them, and he can hold the defenders off and keep the ball for his team.”
Lucas Paqueta was named player of the match
When asked about the Brazilian, Graham Potter told Sky Sports: “He’s a player that has just got a high-end action, he’s a top Premier League player.
“He understands the importance he has in the team and the role he can play. When he’s working hard for the team, he gives us so much.
“He can hold the ball up, he can drop into spaces. Then there’s Mo [Kudus] and Carlos [Soler] around him who are intelligent footballers with power as well, so we just tried to find a solution.”
Jamie Redknapp added: “Paqueta can make the ball talk at times. Under a manager like Graham Potter he might get more licence to get forward, because he’s very good on the ball and he makes things happen. But his level has to remain that high, he can’t not turn it on next week. Talent wise, he’s absolutely great.”
Potter: A really positive performance
West Ham head coach Graham Potter told Sky Sports:
“We’re really happy. It was a really positive performance. For the first 15 minutes, we were up against it but, apart from that, I thought we settled into the game well and attacked well.
“We played with personality, effort, created some chances in the second half and we’re probably disappointed to come away with a point.
Emerson celebrated with team-mate Edson Alvarez after scoring West Ham’s equaliser at Villa Park
“We struggled at the start because we went a goal down early and with the crowd, it can get quite tough for us but we managed it quite well.
“At half-time, we wanted to be a bit more aggressive in the wide positions, try to get in behind them a bit more, which I think the boys did. There were lots of positives throughout the game.”
On transfers: “You try and look all the time and that’s the job of a club, to try to improve. We’ll try to do the same. It’s a complicated window, players have to be available, they have to be the right players and they have to be ready to come in and help. It’s not straightforward but if we can do something, we will.”
Emery: We didn’t deserve to win
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Speaking after Aston Villa’s 1-1 draw with West Ham in the Premier League, Unai Emery suggests the transfer speculation surrounding Jhon Duran is affecting the player but confirms he wants to keep the striker at Villa Park
Aston Villa manager Unai Emery told Sky Sports:
“They are a good team with good players. Paqueta and Kudus were always threatening us. Mings’ injury as well without a fit left centre-back to play. Lucas helped us but we lost a little bit. Then over 90 minutes, I maybe missed some fresh legs.
“We were winning 1-0 [when Mings went off], we started very well then perhaps they were feeling better and better. To keep the result in 90 minutes without one goal more, it’s always difficult. They didn’t create many clear chances, maybe one or two, but we didn’t deserve to win. We have to accept the result and keep going.
“Of course we wanted to win because with 39 points, you’re close to the teams in the top seven. We have to continue to build our team, to learn and introduce new players with our structure, manage the players to be successful in our way and trying to be competitive like we usually do.”
On Jhon Duran: “Some circumstances in this moment are not helping us to focus 100 per cent. But Duran is our player, I am happy with him and I want him here with us.”
