Credit: Imago

Samuel Fabre

Sun 22 March 2026 16:12, UK

West Ham United‘s Pablo was incredibly disappointing as the Hammers lost 2-0 to Aston Villa at Villa Park on Sunday afternoon.

John McGinn opened the scoring for the hosts by curling home a fantastic finish from the edge of the box in the 15th minute.

Nuno Espirito Santo’s side were lucky not to find themselves further behind at the break, and Ollie Watkins finally doubled Villa’s lead by firing home from close range.

Although West Ham pushed to find a way back into the match, they ultimately slumped to a damaging defeat.

West Ham’s loss to Aston Villa leaves them 18th in the Premier League, with Pablo and Konstantinos Mavropanos having contrasting afternoons at Villa Park.

Pablo lets Nuno Espirito Santo down one again vs Aston Villa

The 22-year-old arrived in E20 off the back of a brilliant start to the season with Portuguese side Gil Vicente, although he has found it tough to adapt to the English top flight.

Pablo is still waiting to score his first West Ham goal, although that never looked like happening at Villa Park.

He won 25 per cent of his aerial duels and only had one shot on goal against the Villans.

In the second half, he blazed an effort over the bar from 15 yards out, and it’s clear that the Brazilian is low in confidence.

According to Sofascore, he registered just two touches in the opposition box, which shows how ineffective he was.

With the likes of Callum Wilson and Adama Traore sat on the bench, Pablo will have to improve quickly if he is to keep his place in the team for the remaining matches to come.

Although he was disappointing in the final third, Mavropanos was brilliant at preventing the scoreline from becoming embarrassing.

Konstantinos Mavropanos continues to excel for West Ham

After scoring his first goal of the season against Man City last weekend, Mavropanos followed up that performance with another strong display.

In the opening stages of the game, Mavropanos produced a brilliant sliding clearance to deny Ollie Watkins from scoring.

As the first half drew to a close, the Greek defender then cleared Morgan Rogers’ header off the line from point-blank range.

With four interceptions and four recoveries, the 28-year-old was a standout in West Ham’s defeat, and he’ll be disappointed to end up on the losing side of Sunday’s match.

Mavropanos’ form will be crucial if Nuno’s side are to avoid relegation, and if he maintains this level, he could be the difference maker when it comes to survival.

The Sofascore stats below show how influential he was against Villa, and despite the loss, it’s safe to say that he has established himself as a fan favourite for the Hammers.

This was an incredibly disappointing afternoon for the Hammers, and all the players have been rated below for how they played at Villa Park.

West Ham player ratings vs Aston Villa

Mads Hermansen – 4

Aaron Wan-Bissaka – 5 (83′)

Konstantinos Mavropanos – 7

Axel Disasi – 5

El Hadji Malick Diouf – 5

Freddie Potts – 4 (46′)

Tomas Soucek – 5 (83′)

Mateus Fernandes – 5

Jarrod Bowen – 5

Taty Castellanos – 4 (46′)

Pablo – 3

Substitutes:

Callum Wilson – 6 (46′)

Adama Traore – 5 (46′)

Soungoutou Magassa – 5 (83′)

Mohamadou Kante – 5 (83′)