West Ham 1-0 Aston Villa
Sam Allardyce's West Ham may have been the latest team to earn their Premier League berth having come up through the Play Off Final (where they defeated Cardiff City) though, in the eyes of many they are the promoted team with the best Premier League pedigree having a number of players with Premier League experience as well as "Big Sam" at the helm. In Villa they faced a team that have really failed to gain any continuity in recent seasons with managers being chopped and changed on a regular basis, this was the first game in charge for new manager Paul Lambert, who was brought in to replace Alex McLeish.
The first half was a tedious affair with little to talk about until West Ham's captain Kevin Nolan put the Hammers ahead after a controversial move that saw the linesman flag for offside and then getting over-ruled by the referee. Whilst the referee was right, as the ball had flicked off a Villa defender it didn't make it any easier to swallow for the Villa players.
The goal allowed West Ham to shake the shackles and in the second half they looked the much better team and had several notable chances, though they failed to convert any of them. Thankfully for Hammers fans Villa failed to make them pay for their missed chances and aside from a long range shot by new signing Ron Vlaar Villa posed no threat to Jussi Jaaskelainen goal as West Ham kept a clean sheet.
Sam Allardyce will be proud of his players for picking up the win, and whilst this may not have been the football that West Ham fans want to see they will agree the 3 points are what they needed much than an eye catching performance. With a good core of players, including Nolan, Vaz Te, Noble, Collins and Jaaskelainen it'll be a surprise to me if West Ham do flop. Whilst Sam hasn't brought in many new players (though he did re-sign former player Collins) he hasn't the sort of squad that should have enough experience to keep them up.
Whilst I feel West Ham are good enough to stay up I do have serious worries about Villa who on this performance certainly need to sign at least 1 more player as they simply didn't create enough chances. If you don't create chances you will struggle to score. Whilst they have brought in a number of solid players most of them seem to have been defensive players other than Brett Holmann who didn't look 100% today. The lack of continuity at Villa has to be a worry for fans who will be hoping that Lambert can turn the teams fortunes around after last years relegation battle.
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