VILLA HANG ON TO THE DREAM
They get luck of the draw
WEST HAM 1 ASTON VILLA 1
IF ASTON VILLA do lose their grip on fourth spot, a week has just passed which they may look back on with regret.
The 4-0 home hammering by nearest rivals Tottenham last Sunday was missed opportunity number one.
Then they fluffed their lines again at West Ham yesterday.
Had they overcome Spurs a week earlier, Unai Emery’s men would have moved eight points clear of Spurs in fifth.
Nicolo Zaniolo, right, salvaged a draw for Villa with a late equaliser to cancel out Michail Antonio’s header.
Villa were perhaps fortunate it was not worse after seeing West Ham have two goals ruled out for handball, the second deep into injury-time.
Instead of what might have been a week earlier, fourth-placed Villa now have just a three-point advantage over Spurs having played a game more.
In the early stages it seemed as if both sides were out for a Sunday stroll. But a game started to break out once Morgan Rogers, on his full Villa league debut, burst from halfway and tested West Ham’s goalkeeper Alphonse
Areola. Then a perfect cross from Vladimir Coufal was met by Antonio’s diving header – his first goal since August, having missed a big chunk of the season due to a knee injury. Rene Higuita was at London Stadium on promotional duty ahead of Spain’s friendly clash with Colombia on Friday. The eccentric stopper, famous for his Scorpion kick save against England at Wembley in 1995, might well have appreciated Antonio’s acrobatics.
Villa began to liven up around the hour, Areola became increasingly busy, and it was little surprise when
Villa eventually equalised,
Zaniolo poking home. Matty Cash produced a last-ditch block to deny James Ward-Prowse a winner West Ham then thought they had got when Tomas Soucek, Jarrod Bowen and Konstantinos Mavropanos combined to bundle the ball home. But VAR thought otherwise after a long delay.
WEST HAM (4-2-3-1): Areola 8; Coufal 8, Mavropanos 7, Zouma 6, Emerson 6 (Cresswell 84); Alvarez 7, Soucek 6; Bowen 7, Paqueta 7 (Ward-Prowse 84), Kudus 6; Antonio 8 (Johnson 66). Goal: Antonio 29.
ASTON VILLA (4-4-2): Martinez 6; Konsa 6, Llenglet 7 (Cash 46, 7), Torres 6, Moreno 6 (Digne 63, 6); Bailey 7, Luiz 6, Tielemans 6, Rogers 7 (Zaniolo 63, 6); Duran 5 (Diaby 46, 6), Watkins 6. Goal: Zaniolo 79.