Premier League Match Review: Aston Villa vs. West Ham United
Aston Villa and West Ham United kicked off their new seasons at Villa Park. Villa, who were without a proper manager for the match, appointed Kevin McDonald as their caretaker manager till a proper appointment could be made.
West Ham United gave their managerial job to Avram Grant over the summer, who entrusted the job of leading the Hammers attack to Carlton Cole. Grant opted for a defensive 4-5-1 formation with Parker doing his usual terrier like job in central midfield. Scott was supported by the likes of Kovac, Noble, Faubert and Boa Morte.
At the back, West Ham fielded four defenders which included the likes of Tomkins, Upson, Ilunga and Reid. Villa also fielded a similar line up, with Carew as the single target man upfront while Young played as an offensive midfielder, who supported the Norwegian international more often than not in attack. In midfield Milner, Petrov, Downing and Albrighton were given the responsibility of controlling the game.
In defence, Villa went with Dunne, Warnock, Young and Clark. The game kicked off with Villa feeding off their noisy home support and initiating attack after attack. Young and Milner were both outstanding in the first half as Carew linked up well with them. At around the second minute mark in the match, Aston Villa were awarded their first corner kick of the encounter. The ensuing set piece almost resulted in disaster for West Ham as their goal keeper, Robert Green, failed to make any contact with the ball in an attempt to clear it.
Aston Villa kept most of the possession in the opening twenty minutes of the match and quickly used the wings to initiate attacks and whip in some dangerous crosses inside the West Ham penalty area. Villa’s first two clear cut chances fell to their marksman, John Carew. The first attempt on goal came after a quickly taken free kick by Ashley Young, as a cross was put into the box by Downing but Carew headed the ball wide of goal.
In the tenth minute of the match, Carew was gifted a golden opportunity by none other than Tomkins, who misplaced his back pass to Robert Green. In the consequential melee, Carew’s heavy first touch on the ball let him down and Villa wasted a golden opportunity to score. However, Villa soon attacked again as in the fifteenth minute of the match, Robert Green made a terrible decision to punch an Ashley Young cross. The ball therefore fell straight to Albrighton whose follow up shot was parried by Green into Downing’s path. Stewart Downing as a result tapped the ball into an empty goal to give Villa a crucial lead.
For the rest of the first half, Villa comfortably dominated the possession and created several other chances. In the fortieth minute of the match, Stilian Petrov, Villa’s captain doubled their lead as he headed home after making contact with an Ashley Young cross. Throughout the match, Young was clearly Villa’s best player as he took on defenders and put balls into the West Ham penalty area.
At the start of the second half, West Ham United made changes to their line up as they introduced Frederic Piquionne and Pablo Barrera in place of Kovac and Boa Morte. The new signings gave West Ham a much more attacking outlook for the second half. Mark Albrighton, who was on his debut appearance for Aston Villa became the first man to get booked during the match in the fifty forth minute.
Shortly after, on the sixtieth minute mark, Tomkins became the second player to get booked after his late challenge on Ashley Young. Despite the fact that West Ham had brought on more attacking players at the half time break, Villa continued to dictate the pace and they added another goal to their lead on the sixty sixth minute mark through Milner’s terrific finish from inside the West Ham penalty area. Milner was a surprise selection for Aston Villa as the English international looks to be Manchester City bound in the next couple of days.
James Milner was substituted in place of Nigel Reo Coker after eighty five minutes of the match had passed. The crowd at Aston Villa gave the winger an outstanding ovation on his departure. Soon after Mark Albrighton and Ashley Young were also substituted as Barry Bannan and Weimann replaced the two Aston Villa starters. The final score after three minutes of stoppage time was Aston Villa three and West Ham United nil.
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