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Mark Noble admitted to being slightly disappointed that West Ham were unable to return to London with three points - but was nonetheless happy with United's performance at Villa Park.

The Hammers captain featured for a full 90 minutes as West Ham shared the spoils with Dean Smith's Aston Villa, who played with an extra man from the 67th minute after Arthur Masuaku was sent off by referee Mike Dean.

However Noble admitted to being pleased by his team's performance, which resulted in a second successive Premier League clean sheet for Manuel Pellegrini's side.



"In the end it was a good point," the skipper told Sky Sports. "I really liked the way we played with ten men - we didn't sit back, we kept going, kept trying to score and had a couple of half chances.

"I'm pleased with the point as it's a tough place to come to. You saw them [Villa] under the lights against Everton, they're a good side with good players so all in all I'm really pleased.

"Coming off the back of an international break we've trained hard and we know our shape well. To keep another clean sheet - that's two in a row now - is good for us.

"And eight points [from five games] is a really good start. Obviously we wanted to come here and win tonight, we've gone for it, but you've got to show respect for the other team and they [Villa] played well.

"These are the [kind of] teams that we really struggled against last year. Tonight we looked like a proper football team with the way that we played and looked really dangerous at times.

"I think it was a pretty entertaining game even though it was nil-nil and to play for 25 minutes with ten men, and the way we played, was pretty impressive."



And in reference to the sending off that could've cost West Ham so dearly, Noble admitted that Masuaku had been "silly" by not adhering to manager Pellegrini's half time instructions regarding a potential second booking.

"From where I was it looked like a foul, I don't know whether he [Masuaku] touched him or not," recalled Noble. "It's probably silly from Arthur as he's on a yellow and with the crowd the way they were tonight, they wanted blood. They got it in the end."

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