A Douglas Luiz double helped Aston Villa to a 4-1 win over Europa Conference League winners West Ham United in Sunday’s only Premier League game.
Villa fans are known for being sceptical but the win will have even the most cynical of fans will have thought about qualifying for the Champions League this season. Yesterday’s win means eleven home wins on the bounce and only Manchester City has a better record than Villa since Unai Emery took over.
I know, I know we are only a quarter of the way through the season but Unai is allowing us to dream. I listened to former AVillaFan.Com writer Dan Bardell on Talksport 2 today talking about Villa and he mentioned how he has never seen the whole club get behind a manager like Villa fans currently do behind Emery and he’s not wrong. I’m obsessed and I am sure I am not alone.
Report: Aston Villa 4-1 West Ham United
Due to injuries, Villa’s strongest eleven pretty much picks itself at the moment and Sunday was no different when Emery named the same side that beat Brighton 6-1 before the International break.
Although many suggested Villa had entered an easier set of fixtures after Brighton I disagreed. West Ham are as dangerous as anyone in this division on their day. David Moyes has got them well drilled and unlike Villa when we sold Jack Grealish, they seem to have improved following the sale of Declan Rice to Arsenal.
Prior to kick-off, there was a moment of silence for the victims of the Israel-Hamas war, followed by a touching tribute to the late Bobby Charlton who passed away on Saturday.
Villa began the game on top with Luiz forcing a save from Alphonse Areola in the West Ham goal and Ollie Watkins dragged an effort wide of the goal when it looked easier to keep it in target.
The home side broke the deadlock at the half-hour mark when Nicolò Zaniolo, who replaced Diego Carlos from the draw with Wolves, did well to pick out Watkins and the England striker turned and found Luiz on the edge of the box who struck the ball low with power past Areola.
It took that goal for West Ham to turn up to the party and they had chances through Lucas Paqueta and Jarred Bowen they went in at half-time 1-0 down.
Any hope of a comeback looked to be over seven minutes into the second half when the home side where awarded a penalty.
Paqueta’s poor pass allowed Ezri Konsa to pick up the ball but he was taken down by Edson Álvarez and the referee pointed to the spot. Luiz stepped up and doubled the home side’s lead.
As they did after the opening goal, the away side tried to bounce back and this time around, they had more joy pulling a goal back. Bowen struck the ball from a distance and a deflection off Pau Torres was enough to take it past Emiliano Martínez.
West Ham started to ramp up the pressure with a few groans from the fans but Villa soon restored their two-goal lead when John McGinn was able to rob the ball off substitute Mohammed Kudus and send Watkins down the left channel before scoring to make it 3-1.
The day was finished when substitute Leon Bailey sealed all three points for Emery’s side in the 89th minute.
What the managers said
Unai Emery: “We are feeling very good at home with our fans,”
“You have to connect with the fans. You have to be focused and strong in our structure defensively and offensively but overall we have to create a big atmosphere here with the crowd and really feel they are playing with us.
“We are not contenders to be in the top four. We are not contenders to be in the top seven teams at the beginning but of course, we have our dreams and one of our dreams is to be with the top seven teams and try to do something this year in Europe.”
David Moyes: “Today was a big challenge to see what level we are at and we just fell below that. There were things today we did quite well, but the things we do week in and week out we did not do well. I don’t think we were hard enough to play against at times.”
Up Next
Both teams are in European action this week as Villa head to AZ Alkmaar and West Ham Olympiacos on Thursday.
Villa then return to Premier League action next Sunday at Villa Park against newly promoted Luton Town while West Ham will host Everton on the same day.