Aston Villa 0-0 West Ham

Aston Villa drew 0-0 in a dull encounter against West Ham under the lights of Villa Park.

West Ham’s Arthur Masuaku received a second yellow card halfway through the second half, but Villa failed to capitalise on their numerical advantage.

Dean Smith replaced the suspended Trezeguet with Anwar El Ghazi on the wing, and also handed Marvelous Nakamba his debut at the expense of Douglas Luiz, who started on the bench.

Very little chances

Villa and West Ham registered very little in way of chances, with Andriy Yarmolenko’s effort the closest West Ham got to breaching Tom Heaton’s goal.

Wesley then came closer at the other end as he got on the end of Jack Grealish’s cross from the right flank. Moving across Angelo Ogbonna, Villa’s number nine failed to hit the target at the near post.

John McGinn’s two late strikes ended a pragmatic first half of football from both sides.

Second half

In a second period similar to the first, West Ham once more stifled a frustrated Villa who registered five shots on goal in the 90 minutes.

Tyrone Mings and in particular Bjorn Engels marshalled the potent Sebastien Haller, but Villa failed to convert their solid backbone into that all-important goal.

Smith turned to Ahmed Elmohamady to help break the deadlock, and his first contribution was to force a late tackle from Masuaku, who was then sent off.

Even against ten-men, Villa found it tiresome work to find a route to goal, though Grealish came the closest. Substitute Douglas Luiz floated an inviting ball but Villa’s talisman failed to get any sort of contact in the six-yard box.

Villa now travels to Arsenal next Sunday, before hosting Burnley in their next home tie.