Aston Villa 1-1 West Ham United: Premier League – as it happened

Right, I’m off. Here’s Peter Lansley’s match report from Villa Park. Bye!

The loss of Tyrone Mings to another potentially serious knee injury overshadowed this niggly draw as Aston Villa failed to win for the sixth successive league game after a midweek Champions League tie.

The former Villa captain, only three months after returning from the second ACL injury of his career, looks certain to miss this Wednesday’s crucial European game here against Celtic. With Pau Torres still injured and Diego Carlos just transferred to Fenerbahce, they are light in this position.

Mings left the field in tears after damaging his left knee in a fair tackle by Mohammed Kudus eight minutes before half-time. West Ham, who lost here in the FA Cup in Graham Potter’s first game in charge three weeks ago, capitalised on Villa’s strange decision to play the diminutive Lucas Digne at centre-back thereon in and deserved their headed equaliser from Emerson.

Much more here:

Unai Emery is less pleased, partly about speculation over the future of Jhon Duran – “In this moment they are not helping us to focus 100%. But Jhon Duran is our player and I want him here with us” – and partly because his side gave up a lead and failed to win at home:

I missed a little bit fresh legs. They created not many clear chances, but we didn’t deserve to win. I think the result is fair. We are trying to get another centre-back. I accept today the result. We have to keep going, to continue building the team, trying to learn, to introduce new players with our structure. Try as well to manage the players, to be successful in our way but using players, trying to be competitive like usually we are doing.

Graham Potter is also pretty happy:

Really positive performance. Apart from the first 15 minutes we attacked well, played with personality, effort, created some chances in the second half and probably a little disappointed to come away with a point. We struggled at the start. At half-time we just wanted to be a little bit more aggressive in wide positions, which I thought the boys did. Generally I thought our performance was really positive.

We’re just trying to find a solution. We pressed high when we could, we were aggressive when we could. Lots of things we’ve been working on we saw some positive steps but we’ve still got a long way to go and a lot to improve.

Emerson Palmieri, scorer of the equaliser, is pleased:

I think we did very well, especially in the second half. Of course in the first 10, 15 minutes we suffered a bit. After we started to play with confidence and in the second half we showed our character and we fought to win this game. I’m happy for the goal, and happy for the performance as well. Now let’s see if I can score more.

Lucas Paqueta is named player of the match. He says he doesn’t know how serious his injury is – “I have to check with the doctor” – and that he wasn’t really satisfied with his performance:

I think I can do better. Today I had three opportunities to score and I didn’t score. So I’m still working. It’s a new position for me. I try to do my best to help the team.

West Ham won 0.79-1.52 on xG, for what it’s worth, and had more touches in the opposition box and more passes in the final third.

“I reckon its been more black and blue than claret and blue today,” says Dean Kinsella. I don’t think it was that bad, though it threatened to go completely off the rails towards the end of the first half. Five yellow cards is a respectable haul, really, though perhaps there might have been a couple more. And the last 20 minutes or so, when both teams did their very best to win the game, was really quite fun.

That point takes West Ham above Manchester United, at least for a couple of hours, and into 13th place. Villa remain eighth, three points ahead of Brighton in ninth and three (plus a whole lot of goal difference) behind Bournemouth in seventh.

Injury update: Mings watched most of the second half from the bench and Villa are apparently optimistic that his injury is not serious. Paqueta limps straight off the pitch and down the tunnel at the end of the game.

90+9 mins: And that’s yer lot! An excellent second half, and honours even.

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90+9 mins: Ings’ deflected shot is saved but not held by Martinez, and Soucek gets onto the rebound and gives it to Paqueta, still on the pitch but very clearly limping, who turns it in, but four West Ham players were offside as Ings took his shot and Soucek was one of them.

90+9 mins: West Ham have it in the net, but Soucek was offside in the build-up!

90+7 mins: Guido Rodriguez comes on for Kudus, as West Ham prepare for a free kick in their own half, which Areola will take.

90+5 mins: A replay of that Paqueta chance shows Digne pretty clearly grab his shirt and give it a tug at the crucial moment. Jamie Carragher on commentary thinks it’s obviously not a penalty, but I’m not so sure – looks like a foul to me, and potentially a goal-saving one.

90+4 mins: The ball breaks ahead of Paqueta, bursting out of his own half, but he pulls up as he tries to sprint towards it, and clutches his groin.

90+3 mins: Almost a chance for West Ham! A long diagonal from the left finds Soucek, who nods down to Paqueta, who controls with his chest and attempts some kind of rubber-limbed volley manoeuvre that completely misses the ball.

90+2 mins: A fabulous ball from Tielemans releases both a bit of pressure and Maatsen on the left, but Wan-Bissaka gets back to nick it away from him.

90+1 mins: There’ll be seven minutes of stoppage time, give or take. Both teams’ fans greet the fourth official’s board with a roar.

89 mins: Alvarez is going off now, but it’s a substitution rather than a red card. Andy Irving comes on.

87 mins: Edson Alvarez, already on the booking, barges into Kamara in midfield and is very lucky to stay on the pitch.

86 mins: From the corner it’s not so much that Kilman heads the ball as the ball heads Kilman, who is at the far post, well placed, but seems to be looking the wrong way. It bounces wide.

85 mins: Paqueta backheels to Coufal on the right, and his low centre is turned behind for a corner.

82 mins: Wan-Bissaka crosses and it bounces through to Ings, who chests down and half-volleys just wide. As the first half ended it felt like both teams were mainly trying to get opponents sent off. Now they’re both trying to win a game of football, and it’s quite the improvement.

82 mins: Duran is passed into the left side of the area, but it’s a bit strong and the only way for him to reach it before Kilman is by sliding at it and losing control by doing so. Goal kick.

81 mins: Rob Smyth’s Fulham v Manchester United liveblog is already cranking into gear, if you fancy a bit of that.

80 mins: Villa’s first attack for a while ends with Maatsen crossing into touch from the left wing.

77 mins: Chance! The free-kick is half-cleared to the other side of goal from where Wan-Bissaka crosses with his left and Soucek, beyond the far post, tries to loop a header back across goal but it doesn’t dip enough, and goes over. West Ham are dominating this now, and have admirably turned around a game they started miserably.

76 mins: Digne’s back-pass plays Martinez into trouble, and a few panicked moments later West Ham have a free-kick on the left and bring up the big guys.

74 mins: And some subs for West Ham who, with the scent of potential victory filling their nostrils, bring Emerson and Carlos Soler off and Danny Ings and Oliver Scarles on.

72 mins: A couple more subs for the home side. Morgan Rogers has had a frustrating game, and he and Jacob Ramsey go off while Emi Buendia and John McGinn come on.

An equaliser! It’s a peach of a ball from Alvarez on the right, and Emerson is unmarked at the back post to head back across goal and in!

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68 mins: But Alvarez’s next involvement ends in a booking: it looks like he’s going to lose the ball to Dhuran, so he falls on top of it and grabs it with both hands. Under the laws of the game that kind of behaviour is frowned upon.