Moyes optimistic over relegation escape despite Hammers' missed opportunity against Aston Villa

West Ham United 1 Aston Villa 1

Julian Taylor at the London Stadium

For West Ham United, under current conditions, laboured and edgy as they are, a draw was a reasonable outcome against Aston Villa. Few in the home version of claret and blue can have complaints in this latest situation, stacked around a relegation battle.

A 1-1 stalemate against the mid-table Villans was enough to edge the Hammers out of the relegation zone on goal difference from Bournemouth. Today represented a sliver of encouragement for a team sliding of late, but of course so much drama is still to be anticipated at the bottom of the Premier League table.

A worrying third bottom of the table ahead of the meeting in east London, West Ham approached the game against Unai Emery’s side hoping not just to build up a points tally but to carry on from Europa Conference League feats, as they size up a likely quarter-final spot, with a 2-0 first-leg lead against Cypriot side Larnaca.

“It was a missed opportunity to get the second goal and I think the second half performance warranted it,” said Moyes.

“We like things to be better but it’s not a bad record in recent home games. We scored four goals against (Nottingham) Forest here recently. The players played very well at times, but it wasn’t quite there. We had four or five good opportunities but maybe the decisions in the final third weren’t correct.”

Lately – and more alarmingly for Moyes - was the sheer dejection which manifested itself into nastiness directed from the travelling West Ham support at Brighton, in the wake of their 4-0 defeat on 4 March.

As far as the manager was probably concerned. the boos from the home fans at the end of the game were not especially audible. Plenty of West Ham supporters would have gladly taken a point if offered beforehand. Every little counts and the players can point to the determination they showed after going a goal down so early against a tricky opponent.

'Character'

“I can understand we aren’t doing as well as people would like,” Moyes added. “But I don’t think we did an awful lot wrong. The players showed a lot of character and they got something out of the game after a long journey back from Cyprus.”

In the 17th minute, Aston Villa went ahead in their first significant attack. Leaping to reach a superb Alex Moreno cross, Ollie Watkins eluded Nayef Aguerd to steer home a header from six yards out. The Londoners were certainly shocked – and it was precisely the sort of goal Moyes was hoping his team were capable of cutting out compared to recent weeks.

Nevertheless, the Hammers equalised in 25 minutes, from a penalty, when Leon Bailey tugged the jersey of Lucas Paqueta, with the ball lurking dangerously around the visitors’ goal line. Said Benrahma confidently fired the spot kick into the roof of the net – his eighth goal of the season.

The leveller fired up the east Londoners with Kurt Zouma getting involved, only for his glancing header to go wide of the Villa goal. But the pressure was still rather piecemeal; Villa, typically, a threat on the counter-attack.

This was firmly illustrated when the predatory Watkins was denied at close range by home keeper Alphonse Areola - one of several warnings to the Hammers during the first half. Moyes had Emerson in particular to thank on occasion for his vigilance.

Benrahma was one of West Ham’s better performers. The ex-Brentford man was lively, and his powerful shot just over the bar ten minutes after the restart demonstrated a buoyant mood.

Zouma, too, was important for the hosts, the former Chelsea man’s interceptions helped nullify the breaks by Emery’s outfit – their captain John McGinn at the centre of most of them - although at the other end, the Hammers were increasingly frustrating in front of goal.

Events heated up in the 72nd minute, however, when Declan Rice was judged not to have fouled Villa raider Emiliano Buendia in the penalty area, with the visitors claiming for a penalty.

Optimistic

Yet the second half saw the Hammers profligate on too many occasions – Benrahma missed a good chance with seven minutes remaining – and they lacked sufficient confidence to put the Villans under any amount of sustained pressure. Recent recruit, Danny Ings, didn’t do enough in the final third where it mattered on the day, which Moyes knows only too well. The Scot, though, remains firmly optimistic.

“We have a lot of games – nine, I think, in April - coming up and the majority are at home,” he said. “We’re back, and playing a bit better. There were good things about our performance, even if I didn’t like the result.”

Emery, meanwhile, was broadly satisfied with Villa’s visit to east London.

“We knew it was going to be difficult,” the Villa boss said. “We scored the first goal but they had chances and the second half was more open than I wanted. They have two very good wingers in (Jarrod) Bowen and Benrahma.

“In my opinion it was a very soft penalty for them. Today we did a lot of good things – there are positives and we escaped from here without a defeat.”

The second leg of their Euro tie against Larnaca on Thursday at the London Stadium should be a formality, more significantly, West Ham have two home games against Southampton and Newcastle United respectively, following the international break.

A target of four points from those matches is not unrealistic. Even though, as Moyes so often notes, improvements all over can be made in the quest for Premier League safety.

Hammers: Areola, Zouma, Paqueta (Fornals 76), Ings (Cornet 84), Bowen, Benrahma, Kehrer, Aguerd, Soucek, Emerson, Rice