Time for Hammers to regroup ahead of FA Cup and massive Wolves game after Villa Park flop

No fun at the Holte this time for the Irons

Premier League

Aston Villa (1) 2 McGinn 15, Watkins 68

West Ham United (0) 0

The good news for the Hammers is that Spurs, Forest and Leeds remain on their radar.

The Irons had put together a decent run of results to claw themselves to within range of the teams just outside the bottom three but on Sunday reverted to the less impressive version of themselves as they slipped to a disappointing defeat at Villa Park.

A goal in each half, from John McGinn and Ollie Watkins, were enough to get the job done for Aston Villa, though were it not for another colossal performance from Konstantinos Mavropanos, the margin of victory would have been far greater.

Villa have been stuttering in their bid to claim a Champions League spot for next season but here they were dominant, continuing on from their excellent midweek Europa League performance against Lille.

West Ham turned in a disjointed performance where Villa had 22 attempts on goal to West Ham's seven, only one of which was on target.

The Irons were hampered by an injury in the warm up to defender Jean-Clair Todibo and were unbalanced by Villa's superb attacking combinations, with Watkins, Morgan Rogers and the returning McGinn all causing problems early on.

West Ham were finally undone by a slick free kick across the edge of the box that was swept home by McGinn.

Nuno Espirito Santo, who admitted it was 'not a good performance' from his side, threw on Adama Traore and Callum Wilson for the second half, but despite some early improvements , West Ham's hopes were extinguished by a second goal.

A great run from deep and shot by Rogers was saved by Mads Hermansen, but he could only deflect the ball into the path of Watkins for an excellent finish.

The Hammers can look forward to a home FA Cup quarter final against Leeds in two weeks time and with only one more trip outside the capital, will still feel they can chase down the trio above them in the closing weeks of the season - starting with what will be a crucial Friday night encounter with Wolves after Easter.

Villa: (4-2-3-1) Martinez - Cash, Konsa, Torres, Digne - Onana, Barkley (Douglas Luiz 67) - Sancho (Bailey 67), McGinn (Tielemans 67), Rogers (Buendia 77) - Watkins(Abraham 87)

Hammers: (4-3-3) Hermansen - Wan-Bissaka (Magassa 83), Mavropanos, Disasi, Diouf - Soucek (Kante 83), Potts (Adama h/t), Meteus Fernandes - Bowen, Castellanos (Wilson h/t), Pablo