The 3,000 West Ham supporters made themselves heard at Villa Park and David Moyes, the manager, is convinced a safety-in-numbers approach is keeping their season firing on all fronts.
West Ham’s latest win set a club record eight-game unbeaten sequence on their travels, eclipsing one set in November 1986 — and five consecutive away victories equals another club record.
They made it five wins in a row in all competitions to move up to fourth in the Premier League — behind Manchester City on goal difference — and they are matching their impressive Premier League form in the Europa League and the Carabao Cup, where they are through to the last eight after beating the holders Manchester City.
“We’ve tried to use the squad as much as we can,” Moyes said. “We’ve got a lot of players playing at a similar level so we need them all to stand up and be counted. Whether we can sustain it in the Premier League, the cups and the Europa League remains to be seen but the players have responded very well.”
West Ham used to be known as poor travellers but Moyes has instilled a steeliness in them that demands respect. “I hope teams give us respect but all we are doing is trying to build a consistent team that we think week-in, week-out can give good performances,” Moyes said.
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“I think we’ve got to go again. I’m not rubbing my hands together thinking we have done it because I have been in the game long enough to know we have not.
“Managers look to raise expectations but there’s raising them and at the same time you don’t want to be stupid.
“But after ten games it’s a good time to judge where you are.
“The players have done a remarkable job for me, but you won’t find me or them thinking we have done it because we have an awful lot of games and an awful lot of the season still to go.”
While the 50th-minute sending off of Ezri Konsa, the Villa defender, was a factor, a seventh-minute goal from Ben Johnson set the tone for a dominant display by Moyes’s side.
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Much of the talk before the game had centred on the decision of Dean Smith, the Villa manager, to drop Tyrone Mings, the towering central defender, after a run of indifferent form. Kortney Hause replaced him. Mings may have been in questionable form but his influence as a leader cannot be faulted and Villa looked rudderless as West Ham started with real purpose and intent.
The opening goal came when Declan Rice sprayed a pass out wide to Johnson, who drifted inside Matt Targett and curled a low, left-footed shot into the far bottom corner of the net.
Villa equalised when John McGinn sent Emiliano Buendía scampering down the right with a reverse pass and the £33 million club record-signing held off a defender to cross low to Ollie Watkins, who crashed home a low, first-time shot.
The parity lasted for only four minutes however before West Ham regained the lead. The away side again exploited a lack of pressure on the ball as Saïd Benrahma was allowed to drift in from the left before squaring to Rice.
The England midfielder unleashed a low drive from 30 yards that bounced twice before nestling in the bottom corner. Emiliano Martínez appeared slow to go down.
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The game turned further in West Ham’s favour five minutes after half-time. Konsa was sent off after a VAR check when he pulled back Jarrod Bowen in the box. Seconds before, Hause avoided a booking for arguably a harsher challenge and a body check on Pablo Fornals. Watkins then headed against the bar from McGinn’s cross and Matty Cash fired wide as Villa sought an elusive equaliser.
In between, a dangerous, low curling free kick from Rice was tipped around the post by Martínez.
The game boiled over in the 79th minute. Fornals caught Marvelous Nakamba with a late tackle and players from both sides jostled each other. Fornals was booked for his part, when it looked like he might well have been sent off, and Bowen pushed over McGinn in the mêlée to also earn himself a yellow card.
Within a minute, Fornals made it 3-1 to rub salt into Villa’s wounds.
The Spaniard tapped home after Martínez could only palm away Bowen’s shot on the run after a header on halfway left him galloping clear.
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Four minutes later, it was Bowen’s turn to tap home after Manuel Lanzini squared when Michail Antonio spun Hause far too easily and sprayed the ball into the danger area.
Villa have suffered four defeats in a row and conceded 12 goals in those games. But Smith is convinced the tide will turn. “I believe in this squad,” he said. “We didn’t deserve a 4-1 defeat. The squad is good enough to turn this round.”
He was furious about the sending off. “It amazes me — it wasn’t going towards the goal and Ashley Young was covering,” he said. “That staggers me. It’s not a red card.”
Forearm smash by Hause was worthy of a yellow card
Peter Walton, Former Premier League referee
The law governing the denial of a goalscoring opportunity — or Dogso, for short — was a big talking point this weekend with three incidents in three games.
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In deciding whether to send a player off, the four criteria officials must take into account are: whether the fouled player has control of the ball; if there are any covering defenders who could make a challenge; the distance between where the incident occurs and the goal; and the direction in which the attacking player is headed.
Yesterday, Ezri Konsa’s challenge on Jarrod Bowen was deemed to have ticked all those boxes and I think the delay from VAR was because of uncertainty over whether the West Ham forward was heading towards goal. The referee, Chris Kavanagh, decided that he was, so the Villa defender was shown a red card.
Aymeric Laporte was sent off for Manchester City because his offence against Wilfried Zaha also fitted the Dogso regulations, while Leicester City’s Jonny Evans was spared in bringing down Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, of Arsenal. The crucial difference, here, in my opinion, being that Zaha had control of the ball, while Aubameyang lets the ball run across him and the potential for him to get control of the ball was not clear.
There could have been a case for two red cards in quick succession at Villa Park. Many people thought Kortney Hause, the Villa defender, was lucky to stay on the field after his forearm to the face of Pablo Fornals just before the incident that resulted in Konsa being sent off.
Personally, I would have given a yellow card to Hause but I think the referee, Kavanagh, has missed the incident and allowed play to go, which is why he doesn’t go back to caution him.
And Stuart Attwell, the VAR, also judged it not to be serious foul play, so does not advise the referee to look at it again, so Hause is cleared.
Aston Villa (4-3-3): E Martínez 6 – M Cash 7, E Konsa 5, K Hause 4, M Targett 4 – J McGinn 5, M Nakamba 5, J Ramsey 6 (A Young 15 mins, 5) – E Buendía 6 (T Mings 52 mins, 6), O Watkins 6, L Bailey 5 (A El Ghazi 72 mins, 5). Substitutes not used: J Steer, A Tuanzebe, C Chukwuemeka, C Archer, K Davis, A Ramsey. Booked: Hause, McGinn. Sent off: Konsa.
West Ham (4-2-3-1): L Fabianski 7 – B Johnson 8, K Zouma 7, A Ogbonna 8, A Cresswell 7 – T Soucek 8, D Rice 9 – J Bowen 8 (N Vlasic 90 + 1 mins, 6), S Benrahma 7 (M Lanzini 64 mins, 6, P Fornals 8 (V Coufal 90 + 1 mins, 6), M Antonio 7. Substitutes not used: A Yarmolenko, A Areola, C Dawson, M Noble, I D Diop, A Masuaku. Booked: Fornals, Bowen
Referee: Chris Kavanagh. Attendance: 41,874.
