While Ollie Watkins gave the most articulate response to his omission from the England squad with the goal that clinched this confirmation of Aston Villa’s place in the top four, ending their three-game losing sequence in the Premier League, the most rousing noise around Villa Park arrived when Youri Tielemans replaced John McGinn a minute earlier. The whole of the ground 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 opening goal in the Europa League victory over Lille on Thursday with another nerve-settling strike here, the returning strength and quality of Unai Emery’s squad offers substantial evidence that they can maintain their two-pronged approach for Champions League qualification. It is now 18 days until Villa play again, 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. Villa are five points clear of Liverpool in fifth place and were good value for this return to winning home ways in the league.
West Ham’s hopes of staying up were severely 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 win in the Premier League 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. How McGinn and Tielemans, and the still injured Boubacar Kamara, have been missed during this hiccup of a spell. But the return of the former pairing bodes well.
How Villa had not got this game won by half-time remains a mystery. If you had told the Holte End a fortnight ago that they would be leading this match through another McGinn goal, and had Tielemans on a very strong bench, they would have snatched your hand off. But Emery’s side were so dominant in the first period, it looked like a potential misstep to go in leading by no more than their captain’s goal.
West Ham, coming into the game as one of the form sides in the league, with 15 points from their previous nine games, looked out of sorts from the off. It did not help that they lost Jean-Clair Todibo to injury in the warmup, affecting their regular shape. But whether Nuno had to rejig things so much was a question for the post-match press conference.
Freddie Potts came into the side, dropping in between Axel Disasi and Konstantinos Mavropanos when West Ham were in possession, moving up one when they didn’t have the ball. But Jarrod Bowen was asked to play almost as a right wing-back at times, and Mateus Fernandes wide left at others. It looked like a compromise cobbled together at the last minute by the head coach.
McGinn opened the scoring on the 15-minute mark. After Morgan 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. He had time to weigh up his shot and swerve it into the far corner.
McGinn’s seventh goal of the season helped Villa settle, after their recent poor form in the league, and they took the game to West Ham. Watkins, no doubt smarting from his England exclusion, had four highly presentable chances, either saved or narrowly wide, before Paul Tierney initially adjudged he had been fouled by Mavropanos in the area and awarded a penalty. VAR suggested he should take another look, and the offer was correctly withdrawn.
Amadou Onana headed just wide and Mavropanos instinctively cleared off the line after Ross Barkley flicked on McGinn’s corner for Rogers to side-foot goalwards from three yards out. Villa did everything but score that crucial second goal.
West Ham, winless in their past six visits to Villa Park, were clearly missing the incision that Crysencio Summerville, still out with a calf injury, had been bringing. But they had to get better. Sure enough, Nuno acted at half-time, with Valentin Castellanos and Potts the fall-guys as he introduced Callum Wilson alongside Pablo up front, and Adama Traoré, once of Villa, on the left wing.
Thereon in the game started to resemble more of a basketball match, Villa misplacing the control of the game that Emery craves and, in the first half, relished. Perhaps the adrenaline and tiredness from Thursday was kicking in.
Immediately after 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 as the Belgian returned after two months out with an ankle injury spoke of his value to this team.