Douglas Luiz scored twice to make club history as Aston Villa made it 11 straight Premier League home wins with an impressive 4-1 victory over West Ham United.
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Jarrod Bowen’s second-half strike gave the Hammers hope of a comeback, but late goals from Ollie Watkins and Leon Bailey secured the win to take Villa up to fifth in the table.
How it unfolded
The match started at a ferocious pace, with Watkins missing a glorious chance to open the scoring in the 16th minute, dragging his shot narrowly wide.
The hosts did make the breakthrough on 30 minutes, with Watkins laying the ball off on the edge of the box for Douglas Luiz, whose low deflected effort found the bottom-left corner.
In doing so, the Brazilian became the first Villa player to score in six consecutive Premier League matches at Villa Park, surpassing Dwight Yorke.
At home they are just unstoppable 👏
— Premier League (@premierleague) October 22, 2023
Eleven wins in a row @AVFCOfficial 😅 pic.twitter.com/nptgJzgs4F
Villa doubled their advantage six minutes into the second half, with Douglas Luiz converting from the penalty spot after Edson Alvarez had fouled Ezri Konsa.
Against the run of play, West Ham pulled a goal back five minutes later through Bowen.
The winger’s low shot took a wicked deflection off Pau Torres before nestling into the far corner.
It was Bowen’s 100th senior career goal and the fifth consecutive Premier League away match in which he has scored this season, joining Thierry Henry, in 2001/02, and Mohamed Salah, in 2021/22, as the only players to have scored in each of the first five away matches of a season.
But with the visitors enjoying their best spell of the match, Villa restored their two-goal lead on 74 minutes.
Captain John McGinn won possession in midfield and found Watkins, who drove into the penalty area before lashing left-footed into the roof of the net from a tight angle for his fifth goal in his last four league matches.
Watkins has been directly involved in 27 goals across his 33 appearances for Aston Villa in the Premier League since Unai Emery’s first match in charge, registering 18 goals and nine assists.
Only Salah, with 35, and Erling Haaland, with 33, have contributed to more goals over the same period.
Villa substitute Bailey added a fourth in the 89th minute, curling superbly into the top-left corner to seal a first Premier League win over West Ham since 2015, while handing David Moyes his first defeat against Villa in 15 matches in the competition.
A third defeat in five matches leaves West Ham in ninth on 14 points.
What the managers said
Unai Emery: “I’m very proud of our work with our supporters and fans because we are always playing here in Villa Park, feeling something special with them.
“When they scored one goal and are trying to take the result off us, our reaction was fantastic and we scored the third goal. Then we scored a fourth with Leon Bailey and it was fantastic because we’re building this energy here with our fans.” See more
David Moyes: “Today was a game against a side who you maybe hope we’ll be competing with, but they looked like they were at a different level than we were today.
“Our football is improving and some of our stuff is getting better, but we can’t then let that be part of it and not defend hard enough, well enough or compact enough to make it hard for the opposition to score.” See more
Can Spurs return to the top?
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In the final fixture of Matchweek 9, Tottenham Hotspur will be hoping to return to the top of the table as they host Fulham in a London derby on Monday night.
A victory would put Ange Postecoglou's side two points clear of Manchester City.
