Aston Villa picked up their first Premier League point in seven attempts with a gritty 0-0 draw at West Ham United this afternoon.
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It was Villa who had the game's first chance, as Gabriel Agbonlahor drove at the Hammers defence and unleashed a left-footed shot at goal from a narrow angle, but it flashed narrowly over the bar.
Almost immediately, West Ham fired two efforts of their own goalwards.
First, James Collins saw his strong header palmed away by Brad Guzan before Mark Noble's effort from distance was also dealt with by the American stopper.
Villa defended for the most part, but a slick move prior to half time released Andreas Weimann, who stung the palms of Adrian with a powerful strike from range.
The Austrian striker then hooked another effort towards goal which Adrian had to deal with, before Stewart Downing hit a powerful strike at Guzan at the other end.
Within seconds of the restart, Tom Cleverley came close for Villa with a fizzing shot from 20 yards that beat Adrian but flashed just over the bar.
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West Ham continued to be a threat from set pieces and Winston Reid should have done better than head wide from a 48th-minute corner.
Diafra Sakho, who has been in rich goalscoring form this season, then missed a wonderful opportunity to open the scoring as he planted a 78th-minute header wide when unmarked.
With a minute left, Carl Jenkinson did test Guzan with a header, but the Villa goalkeeper made another save as West Ham had to settle for a point in a frustrating display.
Kristian Johnson
