West Ham left with ´lots to improve´ after opening day defeat to Aston Villa

Julen Lopetegui was left feeling his West Ham side had much to improve on after losing 2-1 to Aston Villa in his first game in charge.

Villa took the lead after just four minutes through Amadou Onana before Lucas Paqueta levelled from the spot before half-time.

There would be no dream start to Lopetegui’s time at the helm, however, as Jhon Duran scored the winner after 79 minutes, before Tomas Soucek missed two clear opportunities to level at the death.

Instead, the Spaniard was left pondering improvements to his new side after a disappointing display.

“We’re going to have a lot of things to improve. Above all in the second half we have a big opportunity to win the match and we lost. We have to learn and improve in the next step,” he told Sky Sports.

“In the second half we started well, we had the initiative. Maybe in the last moments we didn’t take the right decisions.

“They get to score a second goal. I am not happy again because we suffered one goal in set-pieces that in these kinds of matches these little details are going to be key.”

Onana’s opener came from a corner, unsurprisingly given all of his Premier League goals (four) have been headers. However, it called into question the host’s defence as Michail Antonio struggled to mark the Belgium international in the box.

West Ham 1-2 Aston Villa

Unlike last season, Aston Villa begin their campaign with an impressive away win.

Jhon Durán’s winner, assisted by Jacob Ramsey, was Villa’s fourth Premier League goal in 2024 where both players involved were subs, more than any other side. #WHUAVL pic.twitter.com/pEbHCkDCfR

— Opta Analyst (@OptaAnalyst) August 17, 2024

But Lopetegui was also disappointed with the Hammers’ lack of edge at the other end of the pitch.

“We had the last 20 minutes under control and had a good chance to score the second goal, but didn’t,” he later told BBC Match of the Day.

“We suffered with their second goal, but after that we had two clear chances [to equalise]. We didn’t [take them] and we have to keep the good things. It’s a pity for us and for our fans – we had big expectations and ambitions for this match.”

West Ham’s big misses were evident in their 2.4 expected goals (xG). In comparison, their opponents proved far more clinical, with their goals coming from 1.89 xG.

There was some reason for optimism for Lopetegui, however, as he handed out six debuts during the match, the most for West Ham in a single game in the Premier League since 2018 against Liverpool (also six).

“For a lot of players it was their first match in our stadium. Max [Kilman] did well. Guido [Rodriguez] too,” the former Spain coach added.

“A lot of them have to improve and push the players in the line-up to be more competitive.”