Away day delight as Durán secures the points for Villa at West Ham

Aston Villa kicked off their 2024-25 campaign with a win over West Ham United at the London Stadium. West Ham have been a bit of a bogey side for Villa over the years with Villa failing to beat the Hammers in their last eight meetings at West Ham’s home.

Despite the optimism of the new season, many Villa fans seemed concerned about going into the game given our mixed pre-season. In truth, I was a little unsure but always believed that Unai Emery knew exactly what he was doing. If anything, it just goes to show when in football it is often said that pre-season counts for nothing other than fitness, they have a point.

West Ham fans were confident following the appointment of their new manager Julen Lopetegui, who replaced the departed David Moyes in the close season. They have seen their side spend a net £85 million throughout the summer on players like Max Kilman, Crysencio Summerville and Niclas Füllkrug.

Their fans may have left the ground though talking about the one that got away, Jhon Durán. The Hammers were reportedly interested in the Columbian striker in the summer but refused to pay Villa’s asking price and opted for Füllkrug. The Villa striker ended up being the difference between the two sides with Villa fans mocking ‘that video’ from the summer following the goal.

Report: West Ham United 1-2 Aston Villa

There were no real surprises in the Villa line-up when it was released. Emiliano Martínez started between the sticks with a back four of Lucas Digne, Ezri Konsa, Pau Torres and Matty Cash ahead of him. The midfield consisted of Youri Tielemans, Amadou Onana, John McGinn and Leon Bailey with Morgan Rogers just off Ollie Watkins (who played no minutes in pre-season).

It took the visitors just three minutes to take the lead when Bailey picked out an unmarked Onana in the middle of the box from a corner. The new £50 million signing rose above everyone to head past Alphonse Areola, leaving the West Ham keeper very little chance.

Villa could have built on their lead when Bailey broke through, and rounded Areola but he could only watch on as his effort hit the post and wide of the goal.

Moments later, it was the turn of McGinn but the Scotland International’s effort went just wide of the post.

Against the run of play, the home side was awarded (in my opinion) a very harsh penalty. Cash and Tomas Soucek clashed in the box and referee Tony Harrington pointed to the spot. VAR replays showed that Cash got a foot to the ball before the two players tangled but VAR backed the referee and the penalty stood.

Lucas Paquetá stepped up and cooly slotted home to draw the game level.

The goal gave the home side confidence, who were largely second best for the opening half. Soucek came close when he got on the end of a cross from Mohammed Kudus but his effort was blocked.

The Hammers had Konstantinos Mavropanos to thank when Villa came back at them and the defender had to make a double block from Tielemans and Rogers.

Both sides have been fairly active in the transfer window with Villa concentrating on adding more quality to their squad and it was the substitutes that linked up to give them all three points.

Ian Maatsen cut inside playing the ball to Jacob Ramsey who then picked out Durán to fire home and make it 1-2. It was written in the stars.

The home side could have pinched a point late on but Soucek’s effort went over the bar to give Villa a rare win at West Ham.

Man of the Match

It is hard to look past the new signing Amadou Onana. As the statistics below prove, he was very impressive and there was a lot of talk about how Villa would cope without Douglas Luiz. Onana won’t replace Dougie but he gave us something the Brazilian never did – height. He was a presence defending and attacking as he proved with his goal and was a real handful all evening for West Ham.

Goals: 1
Shots on Target: 1
Pass accuracy: 97%
Dribble success: 100%
Duels won: 9
Ball recoveries: 6

What the managers said

Emery: “It’s day one in the Premier League and we started last year losing at Newcastle and finished losing at Palace. We tried to focus on this match and don’t waste time getting points, to be consistent across 38 matches. They were focused on the match really well and I was happy in the end because over 90 minutes we deserved to win.”

Lopetegui: “We are unhappy and sad because we lost at home against a very big team in Aston Villa. We feel the expectation to give our fans a happy day. We have to keep the good things we did but have to improve other things for sure.

“We had good moments in the match. We started in the worst way. We had 10 minutes with a little confusion. Then we improved and finished the first half better than them. At the start of the second half, I have the same feeling. But they have big quality too and we suffered the second goal. We had a lot of risk and had two very clear chances but didn’t score.”

Up Next

Aston Villa will welcome Premier League runners-up Arsenal for their first game at Villa Park this season. Villa did the double over the Gunners last season and will be hoping to cause Mikkel Arteta more problems.

West Ham will travel to Crystal Palace for their first London derby of the season.