While You Were Asleep: Emery replaces Gerrard as Aston Villa new head coach, West Ham beat Bournemouth 2-0, Alcaraz rallies to win at Swiss Indoors

Gerrard was fired in the hours after Villa lost at Fulham 3-0 on Thursday. Villa beat Brentford 4-0 three days later and is in 14th place in the league.

Aston Villa is delighted to announce the appointment of Unai Emery as the club’s new Head Coach. 🟣

— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) October 24, 2022

It will be Emery’s second spell in the Premier League, having coached Arsenal in 2018-19.

However, in October last year, Emery turned down the opportunity to become Newcastle manager, saying Villarreal was his home and he wanted to “continue being part of this project.”

Emery will take over from 1 November after his work permit formalities are completed, meaning Villa’s caretaker manager, Aaron Danks, will remain in charge for the visit to Newcastle on Saturday.

Official statement: @UnaiEmery_.

🔗 https://t.co/aRA1XyUckO pic.twitter.com/Pcxv7dP4vo

— Villarreal CF English (@VillarrealCFen) October 24, 2022

The former Arsenal head coach secured the Europa League with Villarreal in 2021 after defeating Manchester United on penalties in the final and won the competition three years in a row with Sevilla from 2014 to 2016.

Premier League: VAR drama in West Ham’s win

West Ham was helped by two VAR calls for its goals in beating Bournemouth 2-0.

Kurt Zouma’s 45th-minute header came moments after a corner swung in from the right struck fellow West Ham defender Thilo Kehrer on the arm as he jumped to meet the ball inside the six-yard box.

The video review judged the handball was accidental.

Then, as the match entered second-half stoppage time, a cross by substitute Vladimir Coufal hit the arm of Bournemouth defender Jordan Zemura as he tried to block the ball.

The Hammers could breathe more easily when Jordan Zemura was harshly penalised for handball after another VAR check went against the visitors and Benrahma thumped in his first goal of the season past substitute goalkeeper Mark Travers.

Bournemouth could feel justifiably frustrated that decisions went against them but West Ham took advantage to claim a fifth home win in succession in all competitions to move up seven places in the congested table from 17th to 10th with 14 points.

Bournemouth are 14th with 13 points from 12 games.

Swiss Indoors: Alcaraz survives scare

Carlos Alcaraz survived a scare as they rallied to beat Jack Draper 3-6, 6-2, 7-5 in the first round of the Swiss Indoors.

The first Basel tournament since before the COVID-19 pandemic was intended to be Roger Federer’s hometown comeback on tour. But the Swiss great ended his career last month because of a persistent knee injury.

Back to winning ways 🙌@carlosalcaraz comes through a tight battle against Draper in his Basel debut!#SwissIndoorsBasel pic.twitter.com/JsMRsTpXLK

— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) October 24, 2022

The 45th-ranked British player broke Alcaraz’s service twice and made just three unforced errors in the first set.

Alcaraz raised his game in the second set and forced two service breaks without allowing Draper a chance.

The victory was the Spaniard’s first on tour since winning his first Grand Slam singles title, the US Open, last month.

He lost in straight sets to David Goffin in a first-round match three weeks ago in Astana, Kazakhstan.

Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz returns to Britain’s Jack Draper during their first round match at the Swiss Indoors tennis tournament at the St. Jakobshalle in Basel, Switzerland.