West Ham recorded their first points and first goal of the Premier League season with a 1-0 victory at Aston Villa on Sunday.
Pablo Fornals’ deflected second-half strike was enough to see the Hammers open their account for the top-flight campaign after losses to Manchester City, Nottingham Forest and Brighton.
Pablo Fornals scores for West Ham against Villa.Credit:Getty Images
That will ease some of the pressure on West Ham coach David Moyes but increase the tension for counterpart Steven Gerrard, whose players were booed off at full-time.
Villa thought they had taken the lead in the 14th minute, but Ezri Konsa’s goal was disallowed as Lucas Digne’s corner kick had gone fractionally out of play.
Ollie Watkins was a constant threat for Villa in the opening exchanges and saw one shot deflected behind by Kurt Zouma before another tame header was easy for Lukasz Fabianski in the visitors’ goal.
For all the huffing and puffing of Gerrard’s side, they had little to show in terms of clear chances as West Ham weathered the storm. Gianluca Scamacca, on his first Premier League start, helped out defensively by heading over a dangerous free kick from Douglas Luiz.
Moyes was forced to bring off Ben Johnson at half-time due to injury and made another change for the second half with Said Benrahma introduced in place of debutant Emerson Palmieri, which saw the Hammers switch back to their favoured 4-2-3-1 formation.
It immediately improved their display and the visitors should have scored in the 56th.
Fornals played Jarrod Bowen through after John McGinn’s slip but Digne produced a superb sliding tackle after good initial work by fellow full-back Matty Cash.
Under pressure: Steven Gerrard.Credit:PA
A neat one-two between Tomas Soucek and Scamacca saw the latter test Villa keeper Emiliano Martinez just past the hour mark, but the Italian was withdrawn for Michail Antonio soon after.
The Hammers remained the side in the ascendancy and, with 16 minutes remaining, Fornals opened the scoring at Villa Park.
Zouma brought the ball forward and found captain Declan Rice, who picked out Fornals and the Spaniard’s 25-yard effort deflected off Konsa and looped over Martinez to put West Ham ahead.
Villa attempted to respond quickly and Cash curled over, but Gerrard saw his side consigned to a third defeat of the season.
Saint-Maximin snatches late point for Newcastle
Allan Saint-Maximin struck a thunderous volley in the final minute to rescue a point for Newcastle United in a 1-1 draw at Wolverhampton Wanderers in the Premier League on Sunday.
Ruben Neves broke the deadlock in the 38th minute, rifling a shot from distance through the legs of Joe Willock and into the net to cap off a brilliant move that shifted from one wing to the other.
Newcastle had to do without record signing Alexander Isak, who arrived from Real Sociedad last week, as his work permit did not come through in time, leaving the 22-year-old Swede to watch the game from the stands.
Newcastle dominated possession in the second half but the Wolves defence did a good job of stifling their attacking flair, with winger Saint-Maximin looking a shadow of the player who had been their greatest attacking threat this season.
That all changed, however, when he smashed in a volley from the edge of the area, and they almost grabbed all three points from a stoppage-time corner, but substitute Elliot Anderson’s header struck the crossbar.
Saint-Maximin’s goal secured a draw that maintained Newcastle’s unbeaten start to the season and left them in seventh place on six points. Wolves are second-bottom of the table on two points.
Reuters, AP
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