Graham Potter was pleased with his side's performance at Aston Villa and believes they deserved even more than a 1-1 draw.
West Ham boss Graham Potter felt his side deserved even more from their 1-1 draw with Aston Villa, having come from behind to secure a point at Villa Park on Sunday.
Jacob Ramsey had given the hosts the lead with a fine goal early on, but the Hammers hit back through Emerson's brilliant header 20 minutes from time.
The visitors threatened to snatch a late winner, with Danny Ings firing narrowly wide before the influential Lucas Paqueta had a goal ruled out for offside in stoppage time.
It was the first time a side managed by Potter had avoided a defeat when conceding first in a Premier League game since October 2022 (Chelsea 2-1 Crystal Palace).
Prior to Sunday's draw, the new West Ham manager had lost each of his last nine matches when seeing his team concede the opener, and he was happy with their latest display.
"I think the performance maybe deserved more. We played well after the first 15 minutes," Potter told BBC Match of the Day.
"We tried to win the ball back high. It's a reward for the performance we got today.
"We wanted our wing-backs to be more aggressive with their movement, which they did. It's really pleasing overall that the squad looks ready to fight.
"This has been the first week we've had as a training week. We have to keep going, we are at the start."
With injuries to Jarrod Bowen, Michail Antonio and Niclas Fullkrug, Potter used Paqueta as a false nine against Villa, which proved to be an inspired alteration in the contest.
The Brazilian was unable to get his name on the scoresheet, but impressed with his all-round game, winning a joint-team-high 11 duels (level with Mohammed Kudus).
He also registered more shots (three) than any of his team-mates, while only Kudus and Tomas Soucek (nine) had more touches in the opposition box than Paqueta (seven).
"He [Paqueta] was a real handful. You can play into him because he's so strong," Potter added. "I'm really pleased for him, it was a really good performance."
Villa lost 1.39-0.79 in the expected goals (xG) statistics, having led on that metric at half-time, while the hosts also managed just six shots to West Ham's nine after the break.
Villa have now failed to win four of the 11 Premier League games they’ve scored first in this season (W7 D2 L2), more than they did in the 19 games they opened the scoring in last term (W16 D2 L1).
Unai Emery's side clearly flagged after their midweek Champions League exploits and must recapture some energy ahead of Wednesday's crucial tie with Celtic.
"We started the second part of the season with two wins and two draws. We are very ambitious, and we want more," Emery said of the result.
"We have to keep going and focus on Wednesday, recover some players, and try to use the last week in the transfer window. We have to get our performances quality. We want to play in Europe.
"They were pushing and got into our box and scored one goal. We didn't feel strong or have the fresh legs to recover or dominate or try to score. We have circumstances like the injury of Tyrone Mings, and we don't have another proper centre-back."
Emery provided an update on Mings, who hobbled off with a worrying-looking knee injury on just his 11th appearance back after returning from a 14-month lay-off.
The Spaniard said: "I don't know. Tomorrow we will test him and hopefully it is not a lot. Things like that are punishing us."