The arrival of Graham Potter as West Ham head coach has received huge praise from his Aston Villa counterpart Unai Emery.
Potter was appointed by the Hammers on a two-and-a-half year contract this morning, and his first game will come tomorrow evening when West Ham visit Villa in the third round of the FA Cup.
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His arrival adds an element of excitement to the Premier League clash between eighth-placed Villa and 14th-placed West Ham.
Emery expects Potter, the former Brighton and Chelsea coach, to improve the London club's fortunes.
He said: “West Ham have very good players, and they are a good club as well. It is not good news when they change one coach but of course now there is an opportunity for him and we will respect West Ham and we will respect Graham Potter because he was successful when he was coaching before here in England. I think it is He will do a good job.”
FA Cup Woe to Emery
Villa enjoyed great success under Emery but the FA Cup offered few highlights.
In his first season in office, his team was upset by Stevenage, which plays in the First Division, while last year it lost in the fourth round replay at home to Chelsea.
Asked if he found it frustrating, the Spaniard added: “It depends, because the circumstances were at that moment. We didn’t get anything in the FA Cup, but it was an ongoing process. I don’t really think it was frustration. When you lose, it’s something.” Frustrating, but of course that's football.
“We will start this year with the conditions we have now, and tomorrow the idea is to try to be competitive and try to start with a better performance than the last two years, and try to get through this competition, one option to win the title and one option.” For Europe.”
Villa will be without captain John McGinn tomorrow night as the Scotland international is still nursing the hamstring injury he suffered against Leicester at the weekend.
