West Ham beat Aston Villa 2-1 with emotional Yarmolenko goal

LONDON : Ukrainian winger Andriy Yarmolenko and Spanish midfielder Pablo Fornals scored a goal each as West Ham defeated Aston Villa 2-1 at home on Sunday, ending Steven Gerrard's side's run of three consecutive wins in the Premier League.

Yarmolenko had been granted compassionate leave after Russia's invasion of Ukraine last month and then fell ill, missing West Ham's 1-0 Europa League loss in Seville on Thursday.

He fell to his knees and lifted his arms to the sky after scoring Sunday's first goal in the 70th minute, having picked up a precise pass from Said Benrahma and slammed it into the bottom right corner less than 20 minutes after substituting the injured Michail Antonio.

Twelve minutes later West Ham doubled their lead when Benrahma sent a perfect pass to Fornals who scored his fifth Premier League goal of the season.

Aston Villa managed to find a way past goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski in the 90th minute when midfielder Jacob Ramsey received the ball from Emiliano Buendia and sent a fine strike inside the right post.

West Ham, coming from a three-game losing streak in all competitions, moved into the top five on 48 points, ahead on goal difference of Arsenal, who have four games in hand. Aston Villa remained ninth on 36 points.

(Reporting by Anita Kobylinska in Gdansk; editing by Clare Fallon)