Five takeaways from West Ham’s 0-0 draw with Aston Villa

With a lot of circumstance playing on this result, West Ham gutted out a 0-0 draw away to Aston Villa. With ten men, a draw is understandable and the Hammers will happily collect their point. Here are five takeaways from the match!

Attacking Football is Here to Stay

When Manuel Pellegrini signed on to manage West Ham we all had visions of attacking football dancing through our heads. With the team fully committed to attacking Aston Villa, at Villa Park, with ten-men, for thirty minutes we can all agree we finally have the attacking mentality we’ve been missing.

Pellegrini’s targetted players over the past two seasons round out the Hammers attack outside of Lanzini. It’s clear attacking football and attacking depth are what the team is built for, and the stats showed that. Does it sound like West Ham had ten men for 26 minutes when the match ended with the Hammers having 52% possession, four corners, and 15 crosses?

Risk/Reward with Arthur Masuaku

We all love him when he’s bombing up the pitch, dribbling past defenders, and putting a tasty cross into the box, but the pendulum swings the exact opposite direction for Masuaku. His first tackle warranted a card after a leg was stuck in to stop the attack. It’s tactical, but you don’t want to see that at the 23rd-minute mark.

The second card was absurd as Masuaku didn’t make contact with the Villa player’s legs to knock him down. How it was not reviewed, thought upon, or questioned makes no sense… until you realize it was Mike Dean making the call. Regardless, Masuaku was having a bad game but you have to take the good with the bad for him.

Declan Rice Stepped Up

I feel like I can be short and sweet with this one, but yet again Declan Rice showed why he is now a mainstay in Gareth Southgate’s England team. Rice recovered the ball in dangerous areas, intercepted potential through balls, and tackled Villa into oblivion in this match. He also had a howitzer of a shot get blocked from outside the box.

53 passes, 96% pass accuracy, 1 key pass, 1 dribble won, 6 tackles won, 2 interceptions, 1 clearance, 2 aerials won. The stats speak for themselves for the young Lion.

Life With Lanzini and Yarmolenko

One game they’re amazing, one game they’re not; such is life with Manuel Lanzini and Andriy Yarmolenko. I give Lanzini the benefit of the doubt on this one, though. The Argentine has been stellar all season long and just went missing in the final third against Villa. He tracked back well and helped defend for 90 minutes so he doesn’t earn all my scorn.

Yarmolenko, on the other hand, played a lot as he did against Watford instead of Norwich. He’s a frustrating player because he’s extremely likable and threatening with the ball, but if he’s not going he isn’t effective at all. I think he’ll start again next week against Manchester United and could thrive with the stability of the team selection.

Haller is Unbelievable

Another short one coming up here, but Sebastien Haller is a transformative player for West Ham. He never gave the ball away, was constantly running forward, and led the attack even with ten men on the pitch. There is a blue-collar mentality with Haller that has already endeared him to the West Ham faithful and it’s just a matter of time until he gets back into the goals again.