West Ham lifted themselves out of the relegation zone with a 1-1 draw against Aston Villa after being awarded a penalty for Said Benrahma's equaliser that Unai Emery described as being "very soft"
After Bournemouth's shock win over Liverpool on Saturday, West Ham started the game in the bottom three and it looked as though they would stay there when Ollie Watkins headed Villa in front (17), scoring in his fourth consecutive Premier League away game
But West Ham were handed a lifeline when Villa forward Leon Bailey conceded a penalty after very minimal contact on Lucas Paqueta
 Benrahama made no mistake as he smashed in the equaliser (26)
"I respect the referees 100 per cent," said Emery
 "But my opinion today is that it is a very soft penalty
"The result takes David Moyes' side out of the relegation zone and above Bournemouth on goal difference as they ended Villa's two-game winning streak to alleviate some of the pressure that was building after last Saturday's 4-0 thrashing at Brighton
Villa broke the deadlock after a cagey start as Watkins headed in Alex Moreno's cross in the away side's first attack, scoring his seventh Premier League goal since the World Cup
 Only Marcus Rashford (10), Erling Haaland (10) and Harry Kane (9) have more in that time
But West Ham responded quickly from the penalty spot after Bailey was penalised for a soft challenge on Paqueta
 VAR had a quick look before Benrahama lashed the ball into the roof of the net away from the clutches of Villa goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez to level the score
The hosts wasted chances with Benrahma and Kurt Zouma failing to hit the target from inside the box and were nearly made to pay, only for stand-in goalkeeper Alphonse Areola to produce a big stop to keep Watkins from doubling Villa's lead from inside the six-yard box
Benrahma was presented with a chance within a minute of play resuming but his left-footed volley was well stopped by Martinez as West Ham pushed to go ahead
 The game became stretched but neither side had the quality to find a winner
Villa began to tail off after an hour and had to rely on their goalkeeper again as he tipped over a long-range effort from Benrahma cutting in from the left
 Substitute Ashley Young also produced a vital block to deny another strike from inside the box by the West Ham forward in the latter stages
West Ham substitute Maxwel Cornet had a glorious chance to win the game in stoppage-time but attempted a bizarre step over before firing straight at Martinez
 Replays showed he ran too early and was ultimately flagged offside, but he will feel he should have timed his run better and nicked the win for his side
Moyes' side were in the ascendancy for most of the second half but failed to carve out the clear chances needed to secure what would have been just their third win of 2023 in the Premier League
 Although they are now out of the bottom three the home fans made their discontent known at full-time with a chorus of boos
: "I watched it and I respect the referees 100 per cent
 But my opinion today is that it is a very soft penalty
"On the game, he added: "I am happy because we knew this would be a tough match
 We controlled the game more in the first half but they pushed us and had chances
 The second half was a little more open than we wanted
"There was a moment that we were controlling very well and maybe it was the moment to score the second goal and the moment we could win the match
 It was a fair result
"The result is positive
 This draw means were do not escape the teams at the bottom but we are keeping the distance with West Ham
 Today we missed the opportunity to be close to the top teams
"On goalscorer , he added: "I hope Watkins can continue this run of form
 He is very competitive
 He is practising every day trying to learn and do more work than the team is demanding
 This is a good spirit to improve
"Sometimes I am demanding with him, trying to improve him in the small spaces to move better and trying to be more efficient in the box
 He is demanding and critical of himself and listening a lot
" "The performance was much improved in the second half
 We dropped two points in the end because of the chances we created
"We did a good job in the second half
 It was tough in the first
"The biggest thing was to get a result on Thursday [in the Europa Conference League]
 The performance wasn't where we wanted it to be so we wanted a performance today and overall I'm really pleased
"He added: "It was a missed opportunity that we didn't get the second goal and the performance in the second half probably warranted it
 The players played well at times but we couldn't quite get that second goal
 Missing chances has been the story of the season
 We had four or five good opportunities and never seemed to get anything that clean
 Just a bit more quality at the death might have got us more
", Moyes added: "He wanted to stay on
 But I explained to him that I didn't want him to get suspended for future games
", Moyes said: "He is very good at his link-up play
 We know his physical data has to be much better than it is
 Gialnluca has to get himself back
 No manager wants to put a bad team out
"His application is there but we want his output to be bigger and more
 That is one of the things that we are looking for more
 We like his hold-up play, he is really good at it but we haven't seen it as much in the work we've been doing
""It should have been three points
 We played a good game and had many chances but just couldn't score
 Obviously, we need to get wins
"That was their only chance and they scored
 We kept the focus and the belief to come back
 We should have won but we got a point and need to move on
"
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