.png)
17 hours ago
5
The loss of Tyrone Mings to another potentially serious knee injury overshadowed this niggly draw as Aston Villa failed to win for the sixth successive league game after a midweek Champions League tie.
The former Villa captain, only three months after returning from the second ACL injury of his career, looks certain to miss this Wednesday’s crucial European game here against Celtic. With Pau Torres still injured and Diego Carlos just transferred to Fenerbahce, they are light in this position.
Mings left the field in tears after damaging his left knee in a fair tackle by Mohammed Kudus eight minutes before half-time. West Ham, who lost here in the FA Cup in Graham Potter’s first game in charge three weeks ago, capitalised on Villa’s strange decision to play the diminutive Lucas Digne at centre-back thereon in and deserved their headed equaliser from Emerson.
It was a tetchy encounter and perhaps relations between the clubs had been affected by Villa’s irritation with West Ham’s £57m bid for Jhon Durán, their supersub striker, on the eve of last week’s defeat in Monaco.
Villa had started very well, perhaps mindful of how West Ham had governed the early stages of the teams’ recent third-round tie here. Jacob Ramsey, the only change to the XI who kicked off the lacklustre defeat in Monaco on Tuesday, gave them the lead in the eighth minute with his first goal in the Premier League for 16 months.
Receiving Boubacar Kamara’s pass inside, Ramsey played the ball in to Ollie Watkins and surged on to the return, his momentum taking him clean past Vladimir Coufal and setting up a sight of goal. The Birmingham-born midfielder dispatched his left-footed shot, crisp and low, into the far corner, past the recalled Alphonse Areola. “He’s one of our own,” sang the Holte End.
It would have been 2-0 if Edson Álvarez had not blocked Kamara’s shot, from one Watkins pullback, or if the latter had not been offside before squaring for Morgan Rogers to tap in.
West Ham had not had more than a sniff of Villa’s goal in the opening half hour and, after a run of one win and five defeats in the last six games, the evening looked set for Villa to see home their advantage over Potter’s side. The loss of Mings extracted the stuffing out of Villa, however.
They seemed to lose their cohesion, spirit and shape after Mings went off. Having started six games in a row, after returning from 446 days out with an ACL injury, the England centre-back rocked his left knee when challenged, fairly but firmly, by Kudus, and fell awkwardly.
Although the former Villa captain carried on for a couple of minutes, he was clearly in discomfort, and when play next stopped, with his arms down on his thighs in despair, the whole of Villa Park stood to acclaim the unfortunate player as he made his way down the touchline, his shirt held over his face to hide the tears. Changed into his tracksuit, he re-emerged to sit on the bench midway through the second half.
after newsletter promotion
The spirit of the game appeared to be affected by Mings’ departure. Digne, very much a left-back, moved in alongside Ezri Konsa, with Ian Maatsen coming on wide. Tempers flared in the six-plus minutes of added time, with first Lucas Paquetá going down before a free-kick, claiming Digne’s elbow had caused him pain, then Soucek shoving Matty Cash over.
The second half continued in stop-start fashion before West Ham gradually took control. There was not much subtlety about their approach – nor did there need to be – as they worked the play as often as possible to cross from the right flank towards a back post manned by two left-backs.
Konsa had to clear off the line from Carlos Soler after Emiliano Martínez, bumping into Cash, dropped Kudus’s cross; Emerson had already arrived late to miss one golden chance before he did score. Álvarez clipped a ball from the inside-right channel and, sure enough, in came one of West Ham’s four starting full-backs to head in their equaliser.
The game finished in a frenetic, messy tiredness of end-to-end playground football, with West Ham looking the likelier to steal the extra points as Soucek headed over and Danny Ings, the former Villa striker, shooting just wide before Soucek was correctly given offside ahead of inviting Paquetá to coolly turn the ball over the line.
