West Ham live dangerously but Bowen's goal is enough to deny Aston Villa
Paul MacInnes at the London Stadium
Date Published Mon 30 Nov 2020 22.00 GMT

One for the purists and those of a more trashy persuasion, this game had the lot. Goals, tackles, tricks, spot-kicks, feigning and fouls. There was also a lengthy cameo for a fan favourite; the video-adjudicated fractional offside. It was a contest that could have broken any which way but it did so in West Ham’s favour.

They move up to fifth in the table, after a goal at the start of each half from Angelo Ogbonna and Jarrod Bowen proved enough to hold off a rampant Jack Grealish and a cursed Ollie Watkins. The Villa striker fired a penalty against the crossbar and had a goal ruled out for the slow, infuriating reasons mentioned above.

“I’m thrilled to take three points,” David Moyes said. “It wasn’t our best performance but it was resilient and against a good team who’ve done well away from home. But I don’t really like a lot of the offside rules at the moment and I don’t think it’s enhancing the game at all.”

Pre-match dispatches had mostly concerned themselves with the return of Michail Antonio to the West Ham XI in place of Sébastien Haller, who had finally found some form. Antonio’s physicality, pace and determination put the jeepers up Villa from the off and the chaos it caused led to the opening goal.

A Tomas Soucek shot had already been blocked desperately by Matt Targett in the opening minute before West Ham scored from the ensuing corner. Bowen drifted a cross high beyond an Antonio-distracted defence to the back post, where Ogbonna bounced a header past Emiliano Martínez.

West Ham’s direct play and physical threat looked like it was set to cut Villa to ribbons but the visitors weathered the storm and West Ham’s penetrating play became indiscriminate. Suddenly it was Villa who were holding the ball, more than that they were hoarding it.

In the 25th minute, Villa exploded back into the game through Grealish. He had spent the opening quarter in a contest with Vladimir Coufal to see who could draw the cutest foul. But when Matty Cash drove a low cross ball at his midriff, Grealish did not seek a touch or a nibble. He pinged the ball around Coufal first time and sent off infield into acres of room. Defenders backed off and a fierce right-to-left strike followed; a small deflection helping to take it past Lukasz Fabianski.

Villa had two more decent chances before the break, Watkins stabbing wide after a lovely passing move and a clever Conor Hourihane effort from a free-kick going into the side-netting.

It prompted Moyes into action with Antonio off at half-time for Haller and Saïd Benrahma replacing Arthur Masuaku. “The team were told very clearly they weren’t playing well,” Moyes said.

Playing the adventurous forward at wing-back was a bold move but it paid off within seconds when Benrahma found Bowen with a delicious short chip into the box. Bowen flicked his header easily beyond Martínez.

In a recasting of the first half, back came Villa and Grealish again. Trezeguet could not believe his eyes when Fabianski stopped a shot from point-blank range after good work from Watkins. The striker found himself doing the same in the 74th minute when, following a soft penalty decision for a shirt tug on Trezeguet, he smashed his kick against the bar.

More infuriating was to come in the last knockings, however, when Watkins had a calm strike from a Grealish pass ruled out for an offside arm. The call was incredibly marginal, the sight of Ogbonna’s arms around Watkins’s shoulders far clearer. The referee, Peter Bankes, did not even check his monitor.

“It was wrong. That was the easiest way to describe it,” Dean Smith said. “They’ve given an offside for a part of the body you can’t score a goal with and he’s being fouled by a guy with two arms around his neck. If it’s not a goal, it’s a penalty.”