Julen Lopetegui insists West Ham won’t be putting any “limits on their dreams” after a summer of change, but anticipation for what this season could bring was blighted by defeat on the opening weekend.
A new manager, new captain, and eight new signings had given Hammers fans a refreshed feeling ahead of this campaign, yet familiar failings crept into their display as Aston Villa won 2-1 at the London Stadium.
A particularly bitter pill to swallow was the identity of the man who scored the winner — Jhon Duran, who West Ham pushed hard to sign this summer but couldn’t finalise a deal. Duran wanted more game-time this term. A cameo off the bench proved just enough, though, to dampen the mood among the Hammers faithful.
Max Kilman, making his debut after a £40million move from Wolves, produced an impressive first performance, cutting out Villa passes at source and reaching a much higher level than those around him in West Ham’s otherwise stretched defence.
Vladimir Coufal was especially suspect, continually hopping inside when staying wide on the right to keep tabs on Lucas Digne and John McGinn would have been preferred.
There was a very subdued display too from Jarrod Bowen, who was made captain last week as previous skipper Kurt Zouma tries to push for an exit while out in the Middle East.
Back at West Ham, it was less about exits and more about arrivals; only Michail Antonio will know why he made it quite so easy for Amadou Onana to dart away from him and arrive inside the six-yard box to head the opener past Alphonse Areola within four minutes.
Coufal’s poor positioning allowed Duran a shot on goal in the second half, Areola was caught in no-man’s-land as Leon Bailey burst past him and struck the post before the interval, and there was a static quality to the way Lopetegui’s defenders lay passive as Villa shifted the ball around them, through them, and past them for Duran’s winner.
These are the earliest of early days of the season, of course, and excitement around West Ham will not have entirely ceased after this defeat. Kilman and Guido Rodriguez made their debuts from the start, then Niclas Fullkrug, Jean-Clair Todibo and Crysencio Summerville — who made his cameo count with a super display — all came off the bench.
The Hammers displayed decent football for the rest of the first half and much of the second after the lifeline afforded to them despite a torrid start when Matty Cash conceded a penalty that Lucas Paqueta converted.
But the more incisive and decisive side in attack were Villa, and there proved no coming back from Duran’s winner despite both Danny Ings and Tomas Soucek being denied inside the box late on.
The quality of squad West Ham now possess suggests better days at the office will surely follow. With the amount of money they have spent, it is imperative that they do.
