ASTON VILLA’S Champions League curse continued as they remained winless in their last SIX games on their return from European action.
Emerson’s headed equaliser cancelled out Jacob Ramsey’s first half opener to make it three home draws and three away defeats on the back of their Euro exploits.
But it could have been so much worse if Tomas Soucek hadn’t strayed offside to deny the Hammers a stoppage time winner.
In the end a draw was a fair result as Villa dominated the first half, only to suffer an injury blow to Tyrone Mings, which left them having to play Lucas Digne as a makeshift centre half.
Happily Mings later returned to the bench with a smile on his face. But it wasn’t as big as Graham Potter’s after his Hammers earned a valuable away point.
Villa were without the inspirational presence of their manager Unai Emery for this one.
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The Spaniard was sentenced to sit on the naughty step in the stand after collecting his third booking of the season against Arsenal last weekend.
But the first observations he had to scribble into his notebook were positive ones as his side stormed into an early lead.
Emery only made one change to the side which lost in Monaco on Tuesday- but it turned out to be an inspired one as Jacob Ramsey replaced Emi Buendia.
Because the local boy came good after eight minutes to fire his side in front.
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Boubacar Kamara rolled the ball into his path and the 23-year-old drove forward and played a neat one-two with Ollie Watkins.
Then, from inside the Hammers box, he expertly held off Vladimir Coufal and placed a perfectly timed left-footer beyond Alphonse Areola into the far corner.
It was the midfielder’s first Premier League goal of the season and his first since he scored in a 6-1 win over Brighton way back in September 2023.
It also brought up a major milestone for Ollie Watkins, whose assist clocked up his 100th Premier League goal involvement for Villa on his 200th Villa appearance.
That took Watkins’ tally to 69 goals and 31 assists in 169 Premier League outings – the fewest games of any player since Kevin De Bruyne achieved the feat in 155 matches in July 2020.
Encouraged by their speedy start, Villa surged forward in search of a second.
Kamara had a shot charged down by Edson Alvarez and it wasn’t long before Villa had the ball in the net again – only to have it ruled out for offside.
Watkins appeared to have drifted just beyond the Hammers’ backline when he collected beyond the back post.
He pulled the ball back for Morgan Rogers to tap home but the flag went up and VAR confirmed Watkins was indeed offside.
As West Ham wobbled Leon Bailey cut inside and let fly with a shot that Areola did well to save.
But the Hammers steadied the ship and Alvarez crashed a shot off Tyrone Mings before the visitors’ had an optimistic claim for a penalty.
Tomas Soucek headed Aaron Cresswell’s corner towards goal and it did strike Youri Tielemans’ arm.
But the Belgian had kept his limb tight to his chest and VAR agreed with ref Peter Bankes that no offence had taken place.
Villa then suffered a huge injury blow just before the half hour when Tyrone Mings went down clutching his left knee following a block tackle with Mo Kudus.
Villa Park held its breath as Mings writhed in agony, with memories flooding back of the ACL injury at the start of last season which kept him out for over a year.
At least this was not the right knee he damaged so severely then but, after trying to soldier on for a few minutes, Mings signalled to the bench that he had to come off.
He trudged up the touchline shirt covering his face to hide his anguish and he was consoled by subs John McGinn and his former teammate Danny Ings as Ian Maatsen came on to replace him.
Lucas Digne was forced to play as a stop-gap centre-half and suddenly the Hammers smelled blood.
The Frenchman was at the centre of a VAR red card check on the stroke of half-time after elbowing Paqueta in the ribs.
But Digne escaped without punishment as Paqueta made a meal of it, although Tielemans did earn a booking for an earlier foul on the Brazilian.
West Ham looked a different side after the break as Aaron Wan-Bissaka terrorised Villa’s makeshift defence with a string of superb crosses from the right.
From one, Emerson kept the ball alive but Paqueta stabbed his shot wide on the turn.
Digne swept a free-kick over from a promising position before Martinez dropped a cross under pressure and Soler’s shot was brilliantly blocked by Ezri Konsa on the line.
Emery had seen enough and sent on West Ham’s favourite target Jhon Duran along with new signing Donyell Malen for Watkins and Bailey.
Graham Potter was on the brink of making a couple of subs himself but was relieved he didn’t as one of his targets, Emerson, pulled his side level.
Alvarez launched a deep cross and Emerson ghosted in at the back post to power his header beyond Martinez.
It was no more than the Hammers deserved and they went for the kill.
Wan-Bissaka drilled in a low cross which found no takers then sub Danny Ings fired inches wide.
Alvarez was lucky to avoid a red card after avoiding a second yellow for a body check on Kamara – and was withdrawn second later by a relieved Potter.
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The game raged into seven minutes of stoppage time and West Ham thought they had sneaked a win at the end when Martinez spilled sub Andy Irving’s shot and Soucek squared for Paqueta to tap home.
But Potters’ wild celebrations were cut short as Soucek was clearly offside when the initial shot was struck.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
