West Ham 0 Aston Villa 0 - match report and pictures

Christian Benteke almost broke the deadlock but his second-half header smacked the bar in a game of few chances.

The hosts dominated possession but failed to seriously test Brad Guzan with Kevin Nolan missing their best opening.

Villa, pressed back for most of the game, defended well but struggled to create going forward and lost Andi Weimann to a hamstring injury in the second half.

Fabian Delph was sidelined with illness and Matt Lowton returned for the first time since the 4-0 League Cup defeat to Tottenham in September.

Ciaran Clark, Yacouba Sylla, and Karim El Ahmadi replaced Antonio Luna, Gabby Agbonlahor and Aleksandar Tonev.

Ex-Villa winger Stewart Downing started for the Hammers, along with former Wolves winger Matt Jarvis, with former claret and blue loanee Carlton Cole on the bench.

Villa deployed the 3-5-2 formation which helped them beat Manchester City and settled well.

Jussi Jaaskelainen saved from Weimann after six minutes as the striker latched onto Westwood's pass to get goalside of James Tomkins.

Nolan shot tamely wide as West Ham responded to the scare by finding their rhythm as Villa were pinned back.

Without a recognised striker the Hammers lacked punch but were afforded plenty of possession as Villa tried to soak up the pressure.

They looked to hit the hosts on the break and felt Ravel Morrison should have seen red when Weimann broke and tumbled under his challenge as he looked to go clean through.

But the Hammers almost made the breakthrough on 20 minutes after a mix-up in the Villa defence.

Jarvis nipped in ahead of Guzan and when Clark missed his kick the winger could only fire straight at the keeper.

The claret and blues were reliant on sporadic breaks but they were quickly snuffed out by the Hammers with Benteke struggling to get a kick.

Collison fired wide but for all their territorial dominance West Ham failed to seriously stretch Villa.

The visitors defended well in numbers but the Hammers lacked cutting edge.

Leandro Bacuna was booked 20 seconds after the re-start for chopping down Downing and Nolan fired over three minutes later.

Villa still failed to impose themselves going forward and suffered a further blow on 57 minutes when Weimann limped off and was replaced by Libor Kozak.

Joe Cole and Carlton Cole were thrown on by the Hammers as the second half followed the pattern of the first.

But Villa almost opened the scoring on 71 minutes when Lowton ended a sweeping move by crossing for Benteke to smash a header onto the bar.

Immediately West Ham broke and Nolan fired wide from Downing's pass and West Ham camped in the Villa half.

But they still toiled and almost paid the price in the final minute when Jaaskelainen turned Benteke's low effort wide.

And Guzan ensured the point in injury time with a low save from Joe Cole's angled effort.

Aston Villa boss Paul Lambert said: "We had the most clear cut chances today.

"It was a massive resilient performance from a young team today. We lost some players midweek through injury so it was a good performance from us.

"West Ham is a difficult place to come to. They make it difficult for teams but I thought we could had just sneaked it towards the end.

"It was a great bit of play that led up to (Christian) Benteke's header but I still thought we had it in us to win.

"It was a great attitude from the lads and I can't fault them for their performance today."