Emerson's fine header earned West Ham a deserved 1-1 draw with Aston Villa in their Premier League clash at Villa Park.
New Hammers boss Graham Potter had previously lost eight games against Aston Villa as manager – including his first with West Ham in the FA Cup third round 16 days ago – and must have thought he was in for another bad day when Jacob Ramsey (8) brought gave the hosts an early lead.
His first touch from Ollie Watkins' pass went past Vladimir Coufalo before firing into the far corner as Villa dominated the first 10 minutes.
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Jacob Ramsey gave Aston Villa an early lead against West Ham
Despite West Ham's improvement in the first half – although they finished it without a shot on target – Villa should have scored again, with Youri Tielemans and Watkins both shooting wide.
But the game turned for Villa when Tyrone Mings suffered another knee injury doubt. He initially tried to continue after a seemingly innocuous collision with Mohammed Kudus, but eventually left the field in tears.
Lucas Digne was moved to centre-back in the absence of Mings and struggled as West Ham looked to capitalize in the second half.
Asked for an update on Mings after the game, Aston Villa boss Unai Emery said Sky Sports: “I don't know, but I hope it's not much.
“We have structure in our build-up and with a left centre-back that is very important for Mings or Pau Torres. Lucas can play with his left foot but he needs confidence to play more in this position.”
Tyrone Mings left the field with another suspected knee injury
The Hammers had the better of the chances after the break, Ezri Konsa hooking the ball from the line on the hour mark before the visitors made a deserved breakthrough 10 minutes later.
It was a nice header from Emerson, who flew in at the back post and met Edson Alvarez's cross from the right wing. There were questions late on as to whether Alvarez should have been sent off for a second yellow card, but the Mexican avoided another yellow card.
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Emerson equalized for West Ham with a header at the back post
Potter then celebrated after what proved to be the last kick of the game when Lucas Paqueta headed home from Tomas Soucek's pass, but the latter was well offside in the build-up and the flag was raised. It only took a few seconds for the VAR to agree with the decision on the field.
The point sees West Ham move further up the table to 13th. For Aston Villa, they remain four points off the top four, although their unbeaten run in the league at Villa Park now stretches to 11 games. However, they will need to improve on this evidence ahead of their final Champions League game at home to Celtic on Wednesday night.
Player of the match: Lucas Paqueta
Paqueta shone for West Ham and made a name for himself Jamie Carragher's man of the match. After the game, the Sky Sports pundit said: “West Ham really came back into the game and a lot of it was through Paqueta.
“I thought he was fantastic. I always think with top attacking players – of which he is one in the Premier League at the moment – you can't bully them. They have size and power around them and he can hold defenders and keep the ball for his team. “
Lucas Paqueta was named player of the match
When asked about the Brazilian, Graham Potter said Sky Sports: “He's a player who just got top action, he's a top Premier League player.
“He understands the importance he has in the team and the role he can play. When he works hard for the team, he gives us so much.
“He can hold the ball up, he can drop into space. Then there's Mo (Kudus) and Carlos (Soler) around him who are also intelligent football players with strength, so we just tried to find a solution.”
Jamie Redknapp added: “Paqueta can sometimes make the ball do the talking. Under a manager like Graham Potter he could be given more permission to progress because he's very good on the ball and he makes things happen. But his level has to stay so high, he I can't not turn him on next week, he's absolutely brilliant.”
Potter: A really positive performance
West Ham head coach Graham Potter told Sky Sports:
“We are really happy. It was a really positive game. We struggled with that for the first 15 minutes, but other than that I thought we settled into the game well and attacked well.
“We played personally, hard, created some chances in the second half and we are probably disappointed to get a point.
Emerson celebrated with team-mate Edson Alvarez after scoring West Ham's equalizer at Villa Park
“It was difficult for us at the beginning because we went down by a goal early on and with the crowd it can be quite difficult for us, but we managed quite well.
“At half-time we wanted to be a little more aggressive in the wide positions, to try to get in behind them a little more, which I think the boys did. There were a lot of positives throughout the game.”
about transfers: “You try to keep looking and that's the job of the club, to try to improve. We'll try to do the same. It's a complicated window, the players have to be available, they have to be the right players and they have to be ready to come in and help. It's not simple, but if we can do something, we will.
Emery: We didn't deserve to win
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Speaking after Aston Villa's 1-1 draw with West Ham in the Premier League, Unai Emery suggests transfer speculation surrounding Jhon Duran is affecting the player but confirms he wants to keep the forward at Villa Park
Aston Villa the manager Unai Emery told Sky Sports:
“They are a good team with good players. Paqueta and Kudus always threatened us. Mings injury also without a good left center back to play. Lucas helped us but we lost a bit. Then more than 90 minutes, maybe I lacked fresh legs .
“We won 1-0 (when Mings left), we started really well then maybe they felt better and better. To keep the score for 90 minutes without scoring another goal is always difficult. They didn't create many clear chances, maybe one or two, but we didn't deserve to win. We have to accept the result and move on.
“Of course we wanted to win because with 39 points you are close to the teams in the top seven. We have to continue to build our team, learn and introduce new players to our structure, manage the players to be successful in our way and try to be competitive as that's what we usually do.”
About John Duran: “Some circumstances at the moment do not help us to focus 100 percent. But Duran is our player, I am happy with him and I want him here with us.”