Aston Villa 1 - 4 West Ham: Hammers superb in Halloween thriller

West Ham put on a frightening display to win back-to-back trips to Villa Park for the first time since 1967, as they trounced ten-man Aston Villa 4-1.

It was a nightmare start for Villa, conceding after only seven minutes. Ben Johnson was given acres of space on the right side, and after being picked out excellently by Declan Rice, he ghosted past Matt Targett and drilled in his first senior goal into the bottom left-corner to put the ‘Hammers’ 1-0 up. Though, as the match went on the hosts wrestled back control, and in their best spell of the half they drew level. 

This time Emiliano Buendía did brilliantly down the right, and picked out Ollie Watkins, whose shot crept in despite the best efforts of Łukasz Fabiański. All their hard work was washed away however, as West Ham responded sternly and retook the lead before HT via a Declan Rice screamer.

The start of the second half saw the ‘Villans’ horror show go from bad to worse, as Ezri Konsa brought down Jarrod Bowen through on goal, and after a lengthy VAR review eventually Chris Kavanagh came to the decision to overturn the initial yellow card in place of a red, and send the hosts down to ten-men.

 They responded well to the setback and spooked the visitors when Watkins headed into the bar, but they failed to maintain the pressure and West Ham mounted their charge to put the result beyond doubt. It took some effort against a stubborn Villa defence, but eventually a third and fourth arrived through Fablo Fornals and Bowen respectively, both bringing the ball under their spell before calmly finishing off a counter-attack, each from close range.

The win sees David Moyes’ side move up to 20 points after ten Premier League games, equal with Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City in third place. On the other hand, the loss for Villa may send a shiver down their spine, as it is their fourth in a row for the first time since March 2020.