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Attendance: 42,010
Aston Villa logo
Premier League | Gameweek 5
Sep 16, 2019 at 8pm UK
 
West Ham logo

0-0

FT

Result: Aston Villa draw another blank against ten-man West Ham United

Aston Villa fail to take advantage of West Ham United going down to ten-men in a frustrating 0-0 draw for the hosts.

Aston Villa's frustrating start to life in the Premier League continued after the Clarets failed to take advantage of a ten-man West Ham United side at Villa Park.

The visitors dominated the opening exchanges during a frustrating first-half for Villa during which teammates Tyrone Mings and Anwar El Ghazi clashed heads at a corner.

Arthur Masuaku's second yellow card on 67 minutes set in motion a late flurry of attacks from Villa, with Jack Grealish going close, but nobody could secure a decisive touch in what was a scrappy affair.

The result does mean that Villa climb out of the relegation zone, while West Ham are unbeaten since a 5-0 opening day drubbing at the hands of Manchester City.

The hosts started the game with greater cut and thrust, drawing a pair of fouls from Issa Diop and Mark Noble during the opening two minutes.

Villa's early dominance almost culminated in a potentially game-defining early goal for the hosts as an excellent Grealish cross found the head of new signing Wesley, whose close-range effort somehow went wide.

West Ham, however, grew into the game after the 20 minute mark, with one excellent flowing move culminating in Sebastian Haller putting a chance just wide from a Felipe Anderson cross.

Indeed, the technical quality at close-quarters from Anderson and attacking partner Manuel Lanzini was a defining quality of an otherwise acrid first 45 minutes.

Villa's comparative lack of quick thinking in the final third became apparent in a five-minute flurry of attacking momentum for the hosts after 30 minutes, during which players bombarded the box but only managed to create one chance - a tepid Grealish header right at Lucasz Fabianski.

This passage of play appeared to frustrate rather than galvanise the hosts, who ended the first period visibly miffed, with Mings and teammate El Ghazi even touching heads in intimidatory fashion during a dispute at a corner.

However, two quick chances for Villa as half-time approached - the last a fizzing effort from John McGinn - served as an encouraging end to a back-and-forth half for the Clarets.

The second half saw the Hammers once again display their sharp counter-attacking quality as Villa failed to properly get going during the opening 15 minutes.

Only Grealish, Villa's captain and talisman, managed to get the home fans off their seats, often slipping into the right channel to find space away from a congested midfield, with one low fizzing cross ending in McGinn striking just wide.

Led by the nimble and ever-present Anderson, West Ham felt like favourites to score midway through the second period, as the Brazilian talent played a central role in some threatening counterattacking movements.

However, after 67 minutes, disaster struck for West Ham, whose momentum was totally halted by Masuaku receiving a second yellow card for what was, on reflection, a relatively innocuous challenge on substitute Ahmed Elmohamady, who was barely touched by the former's boot.

Masuaku's ejection from the encounter prompted Manuel Pellegrini to take off Anderson, West Ham's liveliest player, on 70 minutes for former Manchester City full-back Pablo Zabaleta as the game entered a tantalising finish.

The game was there for Villa to grab by the scruff of the neck and win, but the home side's attack never seemed to possess the power necessary to break West Ham down.

Indeed, the injection of the experienced Zabaleta, combined with the excellent Angelo Ogbonna, meant that Villa's threat was largely cancelled out.

Nevertheless, one final chance for the home side did come on 88 minutes, as a fizzing cross found Grealish in yards of space in the box, only for the midfielder to fluff his lines in front of the Holte End.

It was, in many ways, a fitting moment to crown this encounter, which featured plenty of energy from both sides but precious little final product.

ASTON VILLA (4-3-3): Heaton; Taylor, Mings, Engels, Guilbert (Davis 85'); Nakomba (Douglas Luiz 81'), McGinn, Grealish; Jota, Wesley, El Ghazi (Elmohamady 66')

WEST HAM UNITED (4-2-3-1): Fabianski' Fredericks, Diop, Ogbonna, Masuaku; Noble (Balbuena 90'), Rice; Yarmolenko (Fornals 60'), Anderson (Zabaleta 70'), Lanzini; Haller

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West Ham boss Manuel Pellegrini on August 31, 2019
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