JAKARTA – Jesse Lingard made a brilliant debut as a West Ham United player to help the Hammers beat Aston Villa 3-1 in Week 22 of the Premier League game at Villa Park Stadium in Birmingham, England on Wednesday local (Thursday WIB).
Lingard, who recently came on loan from Manchester United, marked his West Ham debut by packing a double in the win after Tomas Soucek’s first goal.
The victory leaves fifth-ranked West Ham now 38 points adrift from the top four, while Villa (32) is stuck in ninth place, according to the official Premier League website.
With just 16 minutes into West Ham’s game, Lingard almost scored if only his curling shot hadn’t been ruled out by goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez.
Six minutes later Villa threatened through Ollie Watkins’ cross, but Craig Dawson’s shot bounced off the crossbar.
In the 27th minute, Villa created another opportunity through Watkins’ shot that was out of reach of goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski, but made it to the post.
Three minutes later, it was Martinez’s turn to make a brilliant save for Aaron Cresswell’s free throw.
The goalless draw lasted until halftime and six minutes into the second half West Ham were able to break the deadlock when Said Benrahma’s passing was pursued and completed by Soucek to beat Martinez while taking the lead side over Town.
Five minutes later, West Ham doubled the lead through Lingard’s first goal in control of Michail Antonio’s pass with his chest before unleashing Martinez’s unstoppable powerful shot.
West Ham kept pushing and almost added another to their lead in the 62nd minute when Antonio’s shot that had been fooled by Martinez was missed by Tyrone Mings before crossing the goal line.
Villa, who were slowly beginning to dampen the attack tide, scored in the 81st minute through Watkins’ shot completing Jack Grealish’s pass.
However, West Ham did not give Villa a chance to build momentum, as two minutes later Lingard scored his second using Antonio’s delivery to seal a 3-1 victory.
Both teams will return to the grass on Saturday 6 February when Villa plays host to Arsenal and West Ham as they travel to Craven Cottage to face Fulham.
The English, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, and French versions are automatically generated by the system. So there may still be inaccuracies in translating, please always see Indonesian as our main language. (system supported by DigitalSiber.id)
– .
