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6 hours ago
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While Ollie Watkins gave the most articulate response to his omission from the England squad with the second-half goal that consolidated Aston Villa’s place in the Premier League’s top four, the most rousing noise around Villa Park arrived when Youri Tielemans replaced John McGinn a minute earlier.
Most of the stadium took to their feet and cheered the Belgian’s name more loudly than anyone else’s as he made his return after two months out with an ankle injury. On a day when McGinn, Villa’s inspirational captain, followed up his goal in Thursday’s Europa League victory over Lille with another nerve-settling strike here, the returning strength and quality of Unai Emery’s squad suggests they can maintain their two-pronged approach for Champions League qualification.
Villa do not play again until 9 April, when they visit Bologna in the first leg of their third successive European quarter-final, and their fans can bask in a satisfying glow until then, and quite possibly beyond.
Emery’s side, ending their run of three consecutive league defeats, are five points clear of fifth-placed Liverpool and were good value for this return to their previously imperious home form. West Ham’s hopes of staying up were dented, not only by this damp squib of a performance but by Nottingham Forest’s victory at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Villa were also the only team in the top seven to gain three points this weekend, and a glance down their substitutes’ list suggests they can continue to prosper in Europe and still finish in the Champions League berths in the Premier League.
McGinn, Tielemans and the longer-term injury casualty Boubacar Kamara have been badly missed by Villa during this hiccup of a spell. But the return of the former pairing bodes well.
Watkins ending his six-match goal drought in the league was the other great news for Villa. The England striker, left out of Thomas Tuchel’s 35-man squad for the friendlies against Uruguay and Japan, has not reached previous levels this season, hampered by niggles.
But Emery was singing his praises after a game in which Watkins, narrowly thwarted from scoring four times in the first half when he also had a penalty award overturned by VAR, scored his 10th goal of the season in all competitions.
Amadou Onana won the ball off Jarrod Bowen to set Morgan Rogers off on a run from halfway that ended in a shot Mads Hermansen could only parry. Watkins swooped to scythe home the rebound satisfyingly high into the net in front of the Holte End.
“He’s a fighter,” Emery, the Villa head coach, said. “Three years ago he was not involved in the national team and he deserved to be there. Now he must recover his fight again, like he did today, always doing his task.
“And when he’s doing his task, his numbers are coming. He is fighting with the centre-back. He was getting into and winning duels. He was holding up the ball and playing safe passes. And he was, as well, getting into the box, threatening them, and he scored. He did a fantastic, fantastic job.”
How Villa had not got this game won by half-time remains a mystery. West Ham, arriving as one of the form sides, with 15 points from their previous nine games, looked out of sorts from the off.
The loss of Jean-Clair Todibo to injury in the warmup affected their regular back-three shape. But Nuno Espírito Santo chose to bring Freddie Potts into a defensive midfield role. Quite how Max Kilman, the central defender whom Nuno brought through at Wolves but was left on the bench for this game, views his future at West Ham is a moot point.
“It was not a good performance,” Nuno said. “We expected much more from our side. The injury did disrupt things. It was a decision based on what we had, when we wanted to control the midfield, and we trust [Potts]. I don’t think this was the main reason we lost.”
Potts, however, was replaced at half-time as Villa had threatened to run rampant. Instead, all they had to show from “the best we have played first half at home this year”, according to Emery, was McGinn’s goal in the 15th minute. After Rogers was fouled left of the penalty box, Matty Cash played the free-kick short to Jadon Sancho, who squared the ball along the edge of the area for McGinn to swerve his seventh goal of the season in all competitions into the far corner.
Later when Pau Torres sloppily miscued his clearance for Pablo to sky West Ham’s best chance over the crossbar, Villa made three changes. The appreciation for Tielemans ringing around Villa Park spoke of his value to this team.
