Aston Villa 2-1 West Ham United
Emirates FA Cup third round, Villa Park, Friday 10 January 2025, 8pm GMT
As the late, great former West Ham United and England striker Jimmy Greaves once said, football is so often ‘a game of two halves’.
Greaves’ observation accurately summed up Graham Potter’s first match as Head Coach, as his Hammers relinquished a half-time lead to go out of the Emirates FA Cup at Aston Villa on Friday night.
The Irons were full value for the advantage given to them by Lucas Paquetá’s ninth-minute goal, as they prevented Villa from creating a single goal attempt in the opening 45 minutes.
But the second 45 were totally different, as Unai Emery’s side upped their performance levels and scored two goals in the space of six minutes through Amadou Onana and Morgan Rogers to leave Potter and his newly-inherited squad with only the Premier League to play for this spring.
It all looked to be going to plan when the Irons swept from back to front in seconds through Maximilian Kilman’s long ball, Niclas Füllkrug’s knockdown, Mohammed Kudus’s pass out wide, Crysencio Summerville’s weighted cutback and finally Paquetá’s accurate, confident left-foot finish into the bottom right-hand corner.
Indeed, Paquetá had sounded warning of West Ham’s intent inside 40 seconds, when a superb counter ended with the Brazilian scorching a drive just past the far top corner. Then, after putting his side in front, the No10 was denied a second goal by Matty Cash’s block.
With Villa struggling to create anything of note, the Hammers kept up the pressure as Edson Álvarez shot wide and Kudus was denied by a diving Robin Olsen.
The first half would have been exactly as Potter had planned it, had he not lost Füllkrug to a hamstring injury on the quarter-hour mark.
Villa failed to muster a shot on target in the first half, but it was no surprise that Emery’s team improved markedly after the break, creating 16 goal attempts to the zero they had taken before it.
Ian Maatsen sliced a volley wide, Rogers fired a first-time effort well over and Youri Tielemans shot past the post before left-back Maatsen tested Łukasz Fabiański at his near post.
Villa’s pressure told on 71 minutes, but the corner from which they scored should never have been awarded as Onana’s shot went out untouched, but referee Tim Robinson awarded Villa the set piece. From it, Ezri Konsa knocked back, Tyrone Mings flicked the ball on, Ollie Watkins’ initial shot was blocked and substitute Onana reacted quickest to prod over the line.
Villa’s comeback was complete five minutes later when Watkins took possession on the left side of the penalty area and squared through Dinos Mavropanos’s legs for Rogers to finish from six yards.
With the home side now in control and West Ham’s belief draining, Jacob Ramsey thumped a long-range shot against the post.
Potter’s side did rally late on, with Danny Ings being denied by a block, Carlos Soler and then Ings again firing high and wide, but an equaliser could not be found and the Londoners’ FA Cup hopes were dashed at the first attempt.
Aston Villa: Olsen, Cash (Nedeljkovic 72), Mings ©, Konsa, Maatsen, Tielemans, Barkley (Onana 23), Rogers, Bailey (Ramsey 72), Kamara (Buendía 72), Watkins
Subs not used: Gauci (GK), Digne, Bogarde, Jimoh, Burrowes
Goals: Onana 71, Rogers 76
Booked: Rogers
West Ham United: Fabiański, Wan-Bissaka, Mavropanos (Luis Guilherme 85), Kilman, Scarles (Cresswell 77), Álvarez (Soler 85), Souček ©, Paquetá, Kudus, Summerville (Coufal HT), Füllkrug (Ings 15)
Subs not used: Foderingham (GK), Casey, Rodríguez, Irving
Goal: Paquetá 9
Booked: Kudus
Referee: Tim Robinson
Attendance: TBC
