West Ham United fluffed their lines in their Premier League curtain-raiser against Aston Villa at London Stadium.

Certainly, a 2-1 home defeat was not the start to 2024/25 that Julen Lopetegui had wanted as he kicked-off his new reign in the Hammers hot-seat.

“We had the expectation to give our fans a happy day so we are now very unhappy that we have lost at home,” said the newly-appointed Hammers head coach, who saw debutant Amadou Onana strut onto the Stratford stage and put the visitors in front with a fourth-minute header.

“We began in the worst possible way and conceded from the first corner of the game and, after that, we then had another ten minutes of confusion in our play.” 

While Unai Emery’s side failed to capitalise on their early dominance, the Hammers managed to rally with Lucas Paquetá calmly equalising from the penalty spot as the interval approached.

But the Midlanders snatched all three points when substitute Jhon Durán – ironically, a summer transfer target for West Ham – netted with just 11 minutes remaining to seal Villa's victory.

“We have made mistakes against a very good Champions League team but we still had our moments, too,” added Lopetegui after substitute Danny Ings and Tomáš Souček went agonisingly close late on.

“At 1-1, we looked like we could get the next goal and we had our opportunities. We were aggressive with our high press and, even in the last few minutes, had another two good chances but we didn’t score and so we suffered this loss.”

Only two Hammers new boys – Guido Rodriguez and Maximilian Kilman – started against Villa, but Lopetegui did summon Niclas Füllkrug, Crysencio Summerville and Jean-Clair Todibo from the bench in his quest to integrate the club’s recent signings into the fold.

“My players have all arrived here at different times and we now have to help them to adapt,” said Lopetegui after giving the trio their late cameo debuts.

“Unfortunately, they cannot all play for 90 minutes right now but when they do come onto the pitch they have their chance to show they can be competitive and make us a better team.”

The Spaniard must now put the weekend’s disappointing defeat behind him and switch his attention to the second game of the campaign, a derby clash at Crystal Palace who lost their opening fixture at Brentford.

“For sure, we can do better than we did and we have to wake-up and improve,” added Lopetegui ahead of that tricky trip to Selhurst Park on Saturday (3pm).

“This was only our first step out of the 38 that we must make this season and our focus now has to be on our next challenge.”