By Andrew Cawthorne
BIRMINGHAM, England (Reuters) -Aston Villa missed a chance to close in on the Premier League’s top four on Sunday in a 1-1 draw at home to West Ham United whose Brazilian left back Emerson rescued a point after Jacob Ramsey had got the hosts off to a dream start.
Villa, who want to earn a second year in the Champions League, opened the scoring when Ramsey played a neat one-two with Ollie Watkins in the eighth minute before placing an angled shot past West Ham goalkeeper Alphonse Areola.
Villa should have scored again, with Youri Tielemans shooting just wide and Watkins narrowly missing a header. But the visitors grew into the game and deservedly equalised when Emerson headed home an Edson Alvarez cross in the 70th minute.
The Londoners were the better side in the second half, with Carlos Soler seeing a shot cleared off the line by Ezri Konsa and Danny Ings driving just wide. In a frantic end, their manager Graham Potter was jumping for joy when Lucas Paqueta squeezed the ball home in added time – but he was ruled offside.
The result left Villa eighth on 37 points after 23 games – four points behind the fourth position that would grant them another spot in Europe’s elite competition. West Ham are 13th on 27 points, a comfortable 11 points above the relegation zone.
Villa manager Unai Emery will be disappointed his team did not bury the game early on, after they looked to blow West Ham away in the first 10 minutes, having a goal disallowed shortly after Ramsey’s opener.
But in truth they were hanging on at the end, with Potter’s side looking more confident of a winner on a cold and blustery day in a raucous atmosphere at Villa Park in Birmingham.
In a match littered with fouls and flare-ups between players, both sides had 14 shots, including four on target each, though the visitors edged possession with 56%.
“In the first 10-15 minutes, we suffered a bit, but after we started to play with confidence,” said West Ham goalscorer Emerson. “In the second half, we showed our character, we fought to the end and we deserved to win because we created a lot.”
Watkins’ pass for Ramsey was his 100th Premier League goal involvement: 69 goals and 31 assists. The goal drew ecstatic chants of “He’s one of our own” for academy product Ramsey.
Worryingly for Villa, who face Celtic in a crucial Champions League game on Wednesday, injury-plagued defender Tyrone Mings had to go off, head in hands, after going down and clutching his knee, following a challenge by Mohammed Kudus.
(Reporting by Andrew Cawthorne;Editing by Toby Davis)
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