The failings of West Ham and Aston Villa

Christian Benteke and Winston Reid going for a 50-50 ball

It’s fair to say that some games have a stalemate written all over them before the first whistle is even blown. It was also conceivable that one such game would be West Ham against Aston Villa this weekend.

A predictable point to either side came to pass in a game that disappointed in the most part after some entertaining opening exchanges. The draw was the 8th in the last 14 encounters between the two sides at Upton Park and left both managers bemoaning missed chances after the match, though in reality any guilt-edged opportunities were few and far between.

It was the fourth successive game in which Aston Villa had failed to score and the sixth time this season that the Hammers had drawn a blank in the league. The hosts will feel that they were unlucky not to pick up all three points having controlled the game in their opponent’s half, as confirmed in the WhoScored match report, but it was Paul Lambert’s side that came closest to scoring when Christian Benteke thundered a close range header against the bar in the second half. It was the Belgian’s biggest involvement by some distance having been dealt with superbly by the in form Winston Ried.

Unfortunately for those in attendance, that chance was one of very few moments to excite on Saturday and represented the best passage of play from the visitors in a particularly abject attacking display. Despite making an encouraging start to the game Villa sustained very little pressure, averaging just 41% of possession, though they had the best chances at the start of the game.

Andreas Weimann was twice put through on goal, first thwarted by Jussi Jaaskelainen after a nice ball over the backline by Ashley Westwood before what Sam Allardyce claimed was an honest tussle in the game’s only real moment of controversy. The West Ham manager argued that last man Ravel Morrison came out on top ‘magnificently’ after Villa’s forward went to ground under the youngster’s challenge.

Beyond that moment the away side offered little to no goal threat in the first half and Allardyce’s men were well on top without ever really testing Brad Guzan. Indeed, in the continued absence of Andy Carroll West Ham fielded 6 midfielders on paper, though captain Kevin Nolan occupied Villa’s back three for the entirety of the game.

As the average player positions (above) from the game showed West Ham, in effect, lined up in a 4-3-3 formation with Downing and Jarvis keeping their width high up the pitch. In turn the hosts’ three central midfielders were able to flood the central areas of the field and certainly won the battle in that respect, with Mark Noble particularly impressive.

The West Ham youth graduate attempted a full 33 passes more than any other player on the pitch with an excellent 89% accuracy, pulling the strings for the hosts, who kept the ball far more effectively than their opposition. Indeed, the Hammers’ pass accuracy of 85% was far superior to Villa’s meagre 71% as Lambert’s side looked long more often than not.

With the visitors quick to bypass their midfield West Ham’s looked to get the ball wide at every opportunity. The hosts attempted 40 crosses on the day but only found their man with 6, while Villa attempted just 8 but were only accurate with 3 fewer.

Though a 15% accuracy from West Ham is admittedly poor much of that was down to an excellent backs-to-the-wall display from Villa’s defensive trio. You can garner everything you need from the Midlands outfit’s display from the fact that their four top rated players from WhoScored were keeper Brad Guzan and defenders Ciaran Clark, Nathan Baker and Ron Vlaar.

The latter put in a real captain’s display to earn WhoScored’s man of the match award with a rating of 8.0 having both attempted (51) and completed (43) the most passes for the visitors. The Dutchman made 3 tackles, 3 interceptions and won 3 aerial duels to help his side keep their third successive clean sheet on the road. Only Barcelona (4) and Lille (5) can top that record in Europe’s top 5 leagues, but the issue for both these sides is undoubtedly their efficiency in front of goal right now.