Aston Villa 2-0 West Ham: Watkins back on target to boost top-four hopes

Ollie Watkins scored his first Premier League goal since late January to help Aston Villa to a comfortable 2-0 victory over West Ham.

With Liverpool, Chelsea and Brentford all dropping points this weekend in the race for the Champions League spots, Villa took advantage by boosting their own chances after ending their three-game losing streak in the top flight.

Villa started brightly, with Mads Hermansen tipping Lucas Digne’s long-range sighter wide before Konstantinos Mavropanos cleared a corner off the line.

But it took a clever short free-kick routine to break open the Hammers’ defence, with John McGinn curling in from the edge of the box after being teed up by Jadon Sancho in the 15th minute.

Watkins saw a shot saved before firing another wide in the first half, on either side of Mavropanos making another goal-line clearance, this time to deny Morgan Rogers.

West Ham upped the pressure without testing Emiliano Martinez, and were punished for it in the 68th minute, with Watkins emphatically rifling into the roof of the net from close range after pouncing on Rogers’ saved effort.

Nuno Espirito Santo’s side could not find a way back into the game as they failed to get the win that would have moved them out of the relegation zone after Tottenham’s loss to Nottingham Forest.

The PERFECT Sunday at Villa Park pic.twitter.com/17r3gwYaXy

— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) March 22, 2026

Data Debrief: Usual business resumed for Villa

It was a much-needed win for Villa after three straight losses in the competition, but it should come as no surprise, as Unai Emery is yet to suffer a Premier League defeat to West Ham.

This was his seventh meeting with the Hammers (W4 D3), and it is his joint-most league matches managed for the club against a single opponent without suffering a defeat (also seven against Bournemouth).

Villa put West Ham under pressure from the get-go, racking up 23 shots, with seven of those on target, while accumulating 1.68 expected goals (xG) to West Ham’s 0.94.

But for the Hammers, they have picked up just 29 points from 31 Premier League matches this season; only in 2006-07 (34 games) and 2009-10 (33 games) have they gone later into a campaign without reaching 30+ points.