
West Ham earned their first win of the season as Pablo Fornals' deflected second-half strike gave them victory over Aston Villa at Villa Park.
Villa had a first-half goal disallowed with Lucas Digne's corner having gone out of play before Ezri Konsa tapped the ball home.
West Ham improved in the second half and could have opened the scoring when Jarrod Bowen broke away on the counter, but the winger was denied by a well-timed Digne tackle.
But 16 minutes from time, Fornals' shot struck Konsa and looped over Villa goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez and proved enough to kick-start the Hammers' season.
The win lifts West Ham off the foot of the table and up to 17th, level on points with Villa in 16th.
West Ham boss David Moyes later said: "It's a great three points. The Premier League is tough at the moment. There's very little between the teams, games are really tight and that's the way it was today.
"We scored with a deflection but we were much better in the second which helped. Any win away from home is a really good result.
"We changed the formation which helped. Formations help but it's the players' attitude. They know we've been doing really well over the last couple of years and we want to continue that - we showed that willingness today.
"I thought Said [Benrahma] made a difference. He had a good pre-season but Said sometimes makes good decisions and sometimes doesn't, which can frustrate me as a manager.
"But he came on and turned the game for us in many ways. We're trying to piece together a new team but I thought it was the players who know how we've played in recent years that dug deep when we got the goal and helped us get the three points on the road which is really important.
"We've had a really good two-and-a-half years so any external voices should be talking about that."
