Douglas Luiz brace helps Aston Villa brush aside West Ham and move up to fifth
Aston Villa’s Douglas Luiz celebrates his second goal against West Ham. (Jacob King/PA)
Aston Villa maintained their Champions League charge with a thumping 4-1 win over West Ham.
Douglas Luiz’s brace, including a second-half penalty, plus goals from Ollie Watkins and Leon Bailey moved them to fifth in the Premier League – just two points off top spot.
Jarrod Bowen’s deflected effort made it 2-1 but the hosts recovered for Watkins to smash in a crucial third before Bailey wrapped things up late on.
The Hammers, now five points adrift of Villa, slipped to just a third defeat of the season after struggling to match the hosts.
Villa had waited long enough for a victory over the Hammers, their bogey side.
They had recorded just one win in the last 10 years, a 1-0 victory when Villa were already on the slide in 2015, but under Unai Emery they are a different beast, having earned 10 straight home league wins for the first time in 30 years coming into this match.
Emery put his faith in Nicolo Zaniolo, starting while he assists the Italian authorities in their investigation into alleged illegal betting activity.
A Sunday afternoon slumber hung over Villa Park in the opening stages but it was roused when Alphonse Areola brilliantly turned Luiz’s 25-yard effort wide.
It was a stunning save from the West Ham goalkeeper but he should have been beaten five minutes later.
Moussa Diaby’s pass evaded Kurt Zouma for Watkins to turn Vladimir Coufal. The hard work done, the striker had just Areola to beat but dragged inches wide from 12 yards.
The momentum was with Villa so there was little surprise when they went ahead after 30 minutes.
Zaniolo and Watkins linked on the left with the England striker collecting a cute return pass to tee up
Read on belfasttelegraph.co.uk
