​West Ham moved fifth in the Premier League with victory over Aston Villa in a pulsating match at London Stadium.

​Villa's Ollie Watkins was denied a stoppage-time equaliser after an agonising VAR wait deemed his upper arm was offside, even though he seemed to be being held back by Hammers defender Angelo Ogbonna.

The former Brentford man also hit the bar with a penalty as the spirited visitors pressed for the leveller their play more than deserved.

David Moyes has quietly established the Hammers as an effective outfit this season and they got off to the perfect start when Ogbonna buried a header past Emiliano Martinez inside the first two minutes.

Villa had won all three of their previous away games and seized control of the first half after that, Jack Grealish whipping an equaliser past Lukasz Fabianski from distance.

But Moyes rang the changes at half-time and it paid immediate dividends as substitute Said Benrahma set up Jarrod Bowen for a delightfully deft header immediately after the restart to retake the lead.

Villa had plenty of chances to draw level but were left to rue Watkins' profligacy and VAR's ruling.

West Ham, meanwhile, gratefully took the win to move to within four points of Tottenham and the Premier League summit.

When West Ham were handsomely beaten by Newcastle on the opening day, the script was seemingly set for another season scrapping at the bottom of the Premier League.

​But since that defeat, the Hammers have thumped Leicester City and Wolves, drawn with Man City and Tottenham and accrued their highest points total after 10 games in nine years.

Moyes's teams are always built on firm foundations and the back three of Ogbonna, Fabian Balbuena and Aaron Cresswell, shielded by Declan Rice and Tomas Soucek, have been rock solid.

Indeed, only Tottenham and Chelsea have conceded fewer in the league than West Ham.

And they carry a threat from set-pieces too, no more evident than when Ogbonna towered above Matt Targett to open the scoring from Bowen's corner.

They surrendered the initiative in the first half but Moyes showed his nous to change it, bringing on Sebastien Haller and Benrahma at half-time, and he was instantly rewarded with the winning goal.

They rode their luck, not least with Villa's missed penalty and disallowed goal, but they took their chances and held on.

West Ham may have been written off earlier this season but Moyes has previous with taking unfancied sides into the upper echelons of the league.

With the Hammers sitting in the European places after 10 games, Moyes's stock is rising once again.

​Frustration for slick Villa
​
Dean Smith's side have been a difficult team to predict this season - three wins out of three on the road before this one but flaky at home.

​They destroyed champions Liverpool but shipped goals in underwhelming defeats to Leeds, Southampton and Brighton.

They were also caught cold in the opening exchanges of each half here, two simple headers breaching their backline and undoing their good work going forward.

In Grealish, though, they had the game's outstanding player and he deservedly hauled his side level with a trademark classy finish from outside the box midway through the first half.

His quick footwork was a constant threat but unusually he was let down by his supporting cast as Watkins not only missed from the spot but headed over another presentable opportunity.

Villa controlled the majority of the play but were not ruthless enough in either box to turn their dominance into points.

​When Watkins tucked home in injury time, it seemed they had salvaged a point only for VAR to intervene and leave Smith counting the cost of those missed chances.

West Ham boss David Moyes: "Our performance was not very good. We showed resilience to get the three points as Aston Villa made it really difficult for us.

"I don't want us to play badly, I want us to play well but the team have been excellent generally. The small things went for us tonight, we'll take that and move on."

Aston Villa manager Dean Smith: "I'm disappointed with the result but I thought we were great tonight. We've had enough chances to win the game and that's why it hurts so much.

"They've given the decision offside for his arm but the only reason his arm is there is that he's being fouled. If it's not a goal it should have been a penalty.

"I won't go home thinking about VAR. It frustrates everyone but there's nothing we can do about it."
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*The Guardian*
*Monday 30 November 2020*

West Ham live dangerously but Bowen's goal is enough to deny Aston Villa

One for the purists and those of a more trashy persuasion, this game had the lot. Goals, tackles, tricks, spot-kicks, feigning and fouls. There was also a lengthy cameo for a fan favourite; the video-adjudicated fractional offside. It was a contest that could have broken any which way but it did so in West Ham’s favour.

They move up to fifth in the table, after a goal at the start of each half from Angelo Ogbonna and Jarrod Bowen proved enough to hold off a rampant Jack Grealish and a cursed Ollie Watkins. The Villa striker fired a penalty against the crossbar and had a goal ruled out for the slow, infuriating reasons mentioned above.

“I’m thrilled to take three points,” David Moyes said. “It wasn’t our best performance but it was resilient and against a good team who’ve done well away from home. But I don’t really like a lot of the offside rules at the moment and I don’t think it’s enhancing the game at all.”

Pre-match dispatches had mostly concerned themselves with the return of Michail Antonio to the West Ham XI in place of Sébastien Haller, who had finally found some form. Antonio’s physicality, pace and determination put the jeepers up Villa from the off and the chaos it caused led to the opening goal.

A Tomas Soucek shot had already been blocked desperately by Matt Targett in the opening minute before West Ham scored from the ensuing corner. Bowen drifted a cross high beyond an Antonio-distracted defence to the back post, where Ogbonna bounced a header past Emiliano Martínez.

West Ham’s direct play and physical threat looked like it was set to cut Villa to ribbons but the visitors weathered the storm and

West Ham’s penetrating play became indiscriminate. Suddenly it was Villa who were holding the ball, more than that they were hoarding it.

In the 25th minute, Villa exploded back into the game through Grealish. He had spent the opening quarter in a contest with Vladimir Coufal to see who could draw the cutest foul. But when Matty Cash drove a low cross ball at his midriff, Grealish did not seek a touch or a nibble. He pinged the ball around Coufal first time and sent off infield into acres of room. Defenders backed off and a fierce right-to-left strike followed; a small deflection helping to take it past Lukasz Fabianski.

Villa had two more decent chances before the break, Watkins stabbing wide after a lovely passing move and a clever Conor Hourihane effort from a free-kick going into the side-netting.

It prompted Moyes into action with Antonio off at half-time for Haller and Saïd Benrahma replacing Arthur Masuaku. “The team were told very clearly they weren’t playing well,” Moyes said.

Playing the adventurous forward at wing-back was a bold move but it paid off within seconds when Benrahma found Bowen with a delicious short chip into the box. Bowen flicked his header easily beyond Martínez.

In a recasting of the first half, back came Villa and Grealish again. Trezeguet could not believe his eyes when Fabianski stopped a shot from point-blank range after good work from Watkins. The striker found himself doing the same in the 74th minute when, following a soft penalty decision for a shirt tug on Trezeguet, he smashed his kick against the bar.

More infuriating was to come in the last knockings, however, when Watkins had a calm strike from a Grealish pass ruled out for an offside arm. The call was incredibly marginal, the sight of Ogbonna’s arms around Watkins’s shoulders far clearer. The referee, Peter Bankes, did not even check his monitor.

“It was wrong. That was the easiest way to describe it,” Dean Smith said. “They’ve given an offside for a part of the body you can’t score a goal with and he’s being fouled by a guy with two arms around his neck. If it’s not a goal, it’s a penalty.”
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