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Aston Villa are in the hat for Sunday’s FA Cup fourth round draw after overcoming West Ham at Villa Park.
Villa had to come from behind to beat the Hammers after Lucas Paqueta opened the scoring early in the first half by firing beyond Robin Olsen after being picked out by Crysencio Summerville cross. Amadou Onana levelled the game up in the 71st minute, before Morgan Rogers scored the winner soon after as he turned in Ollie Watkins’ ball across the box.
It was the first time Villa have won consecutive meetings with West Ham in all competitions since completing the league double over them in 2010-11. After also beating Middlesbrough in the third round last season, Villa have claimed successive third round victories since 2014-15/2015-16.
Villa not at their best, but this is knockout football
It turned out to be a great night for Villa as the club celebrated its 150th anniversary, but Emery’s side didn’t turn up for the occasion in the first hour. It really was a sluggish performance and they failed to take a single shot in the first half.
In fact, some sections of the Villa Park crowd even booed after referee Tim Robinson blew his whistle for the interval. West Ham were excellent in the first half under new boss Graham Potter, but began to retreat after the 60th minute.
It allowed Villa to take control, and in front of the powerful Holte End, they scored twice in five minutes through Onana and then Rogers.
“I am very happy because we did a very good match,” Emery told the BBC after full-time. “We’re getting stronger and more imposing. We conceded one goal. One of our work to do is to try to concede less goals. But like the season is going, as we progress we get better. We finished strong.
“To win is very important for the confidence. We gave players minutes as well. We are happy because this competition as well, historically, very important.
“In 90 minutes we were trying to be clinical. We didn’t do this in the first half, but in the second half we were better. We were dominating more and pushing more. We were more clinical. we respected this competition and respected the opponent. We did our work like we planned.”
Villa will play six games in the space of 17 days after beating West Ham, with back-to-back away league games against Everton and Arsenal to come next week.
They will approach those games with two fresh injury concerns as Emi Martinez was unable to feature due to a small injury, while Ross Barkley was forced off injured. Emery said in his post-match press conference that the midfielder could spend three weeks on the sidelines, depending on the severity of his calf injury.
Martinez, meanwhile, will hopefully return to face Everton, but that’s not a given the game isn’t far away. Villa were already without John McGinn and Pau Torres, while Diego Carlos has missed the last matches through injury too.
McGinn faces a race against time to declare himself fit to face his boyhood club Celtic in just over two weeks’ time, while Torres is set to be out for another six weeks after breaking a metatarsal.
Emery subs pay off again
Onana replaced Barkley in the 23rd minute and he was arguably man of the match. He competed well against West Ham’s powerful double pivot of Edson Alvarez and Tomas Soucek, before scoring the all-important equaliser.
Even though it should have never been given as a corner, it was Onana’s off target shot which led to the corner, before he was on hand to stab the ball over the line moments later as West Ham failed to deal with the set-piece. After scoring in each of Villa’s 2-1 wins over West Ham this season, they’ll be fearing coming up against the big Belgian later this month in the league.
All four of Emery’s subs, Onana, Jacob Ramsey, Emi Buendia and Kosta Nedeljkovic made a positive impact on Friday night. Ramsey came within inches of scoring his first goal of the season after smacking the post from distance – it would have been a possible goal of the round contender.
Nedeljkovic showed strong athleticism going forwards and defensive nous to make a couple of important blocks as Villa protected their lead. Emi Buendia, meanwhile, once again made a strong impact after his impressive cameo against Leicester last time out.
He only played 14 minutes against Leicester and also West Ham, but it’s more than he usually gets having been restricted to less than 10 minutes in most of his appearances off the bench this term. I wrote previously about how Buendia needs to find a loan move before the end of the window if he doesn’t get opportunities in this busy period of games, but he is making a difference when he comes on.
The 28-year-old didn’t play at all last season due to a serious knee injury and in his recent two performances, we’ve seen a player who can still offer something to the squad. Perhaps a transfer would be an oversight if it were to be sanctioned. At this rate, keeping Buendia to play his role off the bench – even though he’d like to start more often – might be more beneficial to Emery than the Argentine getting more minutes elsewhere.
Morgan Rogers: Why can’t we win it?
After struggling to find the right final ball in the first 60 minutes, Rogers still managed to play a key part in the cup tie, scoring the winning goal in front of the Holte End.
It was no surprise that once Rogers started to link play better and commit West Ham players, his teammates went up a gear too.
“A bit of belief, we were a bit more patient,” Rogers said of Villa’s performance on ITV. “There was more forward thinking. We created chances, a bit more mayhem in the final third, and that’s where our goals came from.
“We know we can come back against anyone. We’ll look to rectify the start of games, but we’re happy with the way we’ve finished them.
“Why can’t we win it? Anything can happen in a cup competition. You don’t know who you’ll draw, where you’ll play.”
Claret & Blue verdict
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Buy your Aston Villa 150th anniversary commemorative kit
adidas are the manufacturers of Aston Villa’s kits
Aston Villa have released a special commemorative kit to celebrate the club’s 150th anniversary – and you can get your hands on one now.
The club is continuing its season-long celebration on Friday night when Unai Emery’s side host West Ham in the FA Cup. To mark the fixture, which is nearly 150 years to the day of their first-ever recorded match, players will wear a one-off black kit.
It’s the colour Villa first used for their kits before the transition to claret and blue colours. The shirts will also feature adidas’ Aeroready technology as well as the famous three stripes in all black.
