Nuno Espirito Santo and captain Jarrod Bowen both highlighted one major issue in West Ham United’s performance during their 2-0 defeat at Premier League top-four hunters Aston Villa.
The pressing.
Despite losing each of their last three league matches, Aston Villa waltzed to victory against a humbled Hammers; the gulf between two claret and blue rivals proving to be far greater than many had predicted, given the respective form of both sides.
A very underwhelming Villa Park defeat! 🙄
Describe THAT performance in one word…
Jarrod Bowen of West Ham United runs with the ball under pressure from Ollie Watkins of Aston Villa during the Premier League match between Aston Villa and West Ham United at Villa Park on March 22, 2026 in Birmingham, England.
Jean-Clair Todibo was ruled out through injury in the warm-up. This forced an unexpected and unplanned change of shape, with Nuno Espirito Santo introducing Freddie Potts and shifting from a back-three to a back-four.
Nuno Espirito Santo and Jarrod Bowen react to West Ham United loss
While he and Jarrod Bowen were keen to avoid blaming the defeat on Todibo’s absence, both men admitted that West Ham struggled to combat the movement and line-breaking qualities of Aston Villa as Nuno’s emergency gameplan fell flat.
John McGinn celebrates during Aston Villa v West Ham United - Premier League
Photo by Ben Roberts – Danehouse /Getty Images
“It was not a good performance,” said Nuno, speaking to Sky Sports and the BBC. “In the first half we were never comfortable. We were not able to run, press and lost a lot of duels. I never felt the team was in the right place.
“It is always a problem losing a player in the warm up. It changes things, we had to change shape and then in the first half we arrived late on the press and there were many things we did wrong.”
Freddie Potts and Tomas Soucek struggle at Aston Villa
While many supporters demanded Mohamadou Kante’s introduction, Nuno opted to bring on Callum Wilson and Adama Traore for Potts and Taty Castellanos at the interval.
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The Hammers were a side improved after the break, but Tomas Soucek and Mateus Fernandes were still comfortably overrun by Villa’s central quartet of Morgan Rogers, Amadou Onana, Ross Barkley and goalscorer John McGinn.
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“We lost the game against a good team,” Nuno added. “They were better and stronger than us. At half-time, we made some changes. We slightly improved but not enough to change the game.”
“They created a lot of opportunities that we didn’t do well enough [to prevent] with our shape,” Bowen agrees. “They played well between our lines. At 1-0 you know you are in the game and we had a couple of half chances and then they get the second which killed the game.”
Tellingly, neither Potts nor Soucek managed to make a single successful tackle between them. Rogers in particular was a menace between the lines, a typical driving run helping create Ollie Watkins’ clincher in the 68th minute.
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