Onana and Duran Lead Villa to 2-1 Victory Over West Ham

Amadou Onana made an instant impact on his Aston Villa debut, scoring just four minutes into the game. Jhon Duran sealed the victory with a late winner as Unai Emery's squad started their Premier League campaign with a 2-1 win against West Ham United on Saturday.

The 22-year-old Onana, signed from Everton, leapt high to head home Youri Tielemans' corner in the fourth minute, easily darting away from Michail Antonio to beat keeper Alphonse Areola from three yards out.

"To come here and win is massive for us," Tielemans said. "It gets us off to a good start. We can enjoy this win because it was a tough battle today."

Villa squandered several excellent chances before Lucas Paqueta drew the hosts level from the penalty spot in the 37th minute, the spot-kick awarded after a VAR check showed Matty Cash had fouled Tomas Soucek.

Duran spoiled the home side's evening, however, after Villa worked the ball down the left side and Jacob Ramsey's cross found Duran for a left-footed shot from the centre of the area through Areola's legs 11 minutes from time.

Onana matched Kevin Phillips (2005) to become the joint earliest goalscorer for Villa on their league debut.

"He's got loads of confidence, loads of qualities. He's just exposed all of that today," Tielemans said of Onana. "Hopefully he can carry on and become even better than he is."

Villa had a couple of excellent chances to double their lead earlier, first when Leon Bailey had Areola beaten before hitting the post from a tight angle and John McGinn's shot rolled just wide.

But Paqueta equalised soon after from the spot, the Brazilian beating keeper Emi Martinez with a stop-start run-up before calmly side-footing the ball into the bottom left corner.

After Duran's late goal, West Ham were close to equalising again seconds before the final whistle, but Soucek's header was cleared off the line by Ezri Konsa.

Emery's Villa are riding high, competing in the Champions League this season for the first time in 41 years after finishing fourth in the Premier League.

"There's loads of expectations around us now, (our top-four finish) was not by a miracle," Tielemans said.

West Ham, after four years with David Moyes at the helm, have appointed Spanish manager Julen Lopetegui who will be looking to improve on their ninth-place finish last season.

"On another day, (our chances) go in and it's a different story. The first goal was a gift," West Ham forward Jarrod Bowen told . "We controlled the game a little bit more in the second half. We had some really good chances to go ahead in the game but didn't.

"This is the first game, but there are 37 more. You never want (to lose) the first game of the season, but we need to pick ourselves up before another tough game."