West Ham 2-1 Aston Villa: Ollie Watkins misses penalty as Hammers go fifth with victory

Report and free highlights as second-minute Angelo Ogbonna header and 46th-minute Jarrod Bowen goal lift West Ham to fifth with 2-1 win over Aston Villa, who are 10th after Ollie Watkins' late disallowed goal

Ron Walker

Digital Football Journalist @Ronnabe

Tuesday 1 December 2020 13:32, UK

Ollie Watkins endured a night to forget as he missed a penalty and saw an injury-time equaliser ruled out by VAR in Aston Villa's 2-1 defeat at West Ham.

West Ham had twice taken the lead in the opening moments of either half, with Angelo Ogbonna heading in from a Jarrod Bowen corner with less than two minutes on the clock, before Jack Grealish continued his fine run of form with a solo run and finish to level (25).

Half-time substitute Said Benrahma crossed for Bowen to nod the hosts back ahead 28 seconds into the second half, and minutes after Trezeguet missed a clear-cut chance to level, Villa were put through more penalty heartache a week after VAR denied them a late spot-kick in their defeat to Brighton.

How the teams lined up | Match stats
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This time the video assistant agreed with Peter Bankes' decision to point to the spot after Declan Rice's pull on Trezeguet's shirt, but Watkins continued his poor run from 12 yards - having missed two of his previous five penalties - when his effort struck the bar.

Watkins briefly looked to have redeemed himself in stoppage time when turning in Matt Targett's cross, only for a borderline VAR review to rule the goal out for an offside.

Moyes magic lifts West Ham to fifth

The London Stadium has rarely felt like a happy home for the Hammers, but West Ham have made their often polarising home feel more of a fortress in recent times, and were celebrating in the second minute as Ogbonna took advantage of some poor Villa defending to head in Bowen's corner.

Grealish, compared to Eden Hazard by Jamie Carragher ahead of kick-off, showed he was in the mood minutes later to feed Trezeguet from the left flank, with his shot deflected behind before Ezri Konsa headed over from the corner which followed.

The Villa captain took matters into his own hands midway through the opening period, adding his 10th goal involvement in nine games with a trademark run from deep before beating Lukasz Fabianski from 20 yards courtesy of an unfortunate deflection off Ogbonna.

Watkins tried his luck too from 15 yards shortly before half-time, but within a minute of the restart Villa's good work was undone as Benrahma, a substitute at the break, found Bowen from the left flank and the former Hull man nodded home.

Trezeguet saw another shot blocked behind as Villa again responded well, but on the hour mark he could only blame himself that Villa had not drawn level, with Watkins' tee-up begging to be sidefooted home, but instead turned straight into Fabianski's arms by the Egyptian, and away to safety.

The winger should have had a hand in a Villa equaliser 10 minutes later when Rice was penalised for the slightest of tugs on his shirt, but when Watkins stepped up from 12 yards, he too let West Ham off the hook when his penalty bounced clear off the bar.

There was more drama to come in added time when Watkins turned home Targett's cross, finally thinking he had earned Villa the point they would have deserved at the very least, but a marginal offside call ruled his goal out - although there were suggestions he had been fouled - and allowed West Ham to hang on to three points which lifts them within four points of the top of the table.

Ref Watch: It is a subjective call

Analysis by former Premier League referee Dermot Gallagher:

"There are a number of issues. First and foremost, when the ball goes in the net, the first priority is to check the offside. It was very, very tight and they have to be precise, and we saw how diligent they were.

"Once they decided it was offside, they then checked the buildup and whether there was a foul and the VAR [Stuart Attwell] came to the conclusion, in his opinion, that was not a foul and did not impact on Watkins and therefore it was decided the goal was ruled out for offside.

"If a defender or a forward does that to an opponent in the penalty are, he runs a massive risk. It is a subjective call, but Peter Bankes obviously did not see that on the pitch, there is no doubt about that because the on-field decision was 'goal'.

"It goes back to the VAR, he has the responsibility then to check the offside and then check what happens in the buildup and in his opinion, he did not think it was a foul. So that is why the goal was ruled out and no penalty given."

What the managers said...

West Ham boss David Moyes told Sky Sports: "I thought they [Villa] played well. They made it difficult, we started well and then we never really got a grip of the game at all, which has not been like us. The resilience the players showed to keep at it was impressive.

"We want them to get [VAR] right if they're going to do it, but we want it to be a bit quicker, it took forever. I don't know why it took so long, I've had one quick glance at it and it looked offside to me when it happened. If they were looking for something else, I don't know. Those small things went for us tonight, we'll take what we can get and move on."

Aston Villa boss Dean Smith told Sky Sports: "I'm disappointed with the result but really pleased with the performance, I thought we were great tonight. Two lapses of concentration have cost us two goals, another day that doesn't happen. Our blockers have ended up blocking each other rather than Ogbonna, he gets a free run and scores.

"We've had a penalty we've missed, and a goal disallowed for a part of his body which can't put the ball in the net anyway. I'm okay if it's a red line and it says he's offside. That's the rule. But if his arm's up there because he's getting fouled, that's a penalty."

Man of the match - Jack Grealish

Maybe inspired by Carragher's pre-match comparisons to one of the all-time Premier League greats, Grealish continued his sensational return in 2020/21 with a 10th goal involvement as he found the back of the net from outside the box to bring Aston Villa level.

Just as Villa did not deserve to lose, neither did their captain deserve to be on the losing side, completing more dribbles than anyone else across 90 minutes (7) and proving the main playmaker for the visitors, providing five key passes.

Opta facts

West Ham have won three consecutive Premier League games for the first time since May 2019, while they have lost just one of their last eight (W5 D2) after losing the two directly before that.
Aston Villa have lost four of their last five top-flight games (W1), after enjoying an unbeaten run of eight games before that (W6 D2).
West Ham became the first side to score in the opening two minutes of the first and second half in a single Premier League game since Man City against Fulham in September 2018.
A divisional-high five of Aston Villa's Premier League goals this season have come from outside the box (Grealish 2, Barkley 2, McGinn 1).
These two sides have made fewer changes to their starting XI's than any other teams in the Premier League this season (Aston Villa 4, West Ham 5).
Angelo Ogbonna's opener for West Ham (1 minute & 50 seconds) was the Hammers' fastest Premier League goal since November 2016, when Diafra Sakho netted after 1 minute and 30 seconds against Manchester United.

What's next?

West Ham host Manchester United in the tea-time kick-off on Saturday Night Football, live on Sky Sports Premier League from 5pm on Saturday; kick-off at 5.30pm.

Aston Villa are also back on the box on Friday night, hosting Newcastle live on Sky Sports Premier League from 7pm; kick-off at 8pm.