Lucas Paqueta scored to give Potter the dream start at Villa Park on his return to the dugout, 20 months after quitting his last position at Chelsea in April 2023, and having overseen only one West Ham training session.
However, Amadou Onana and Morgan Rogers reversed the game in the hosts’ advantage, advancing them to the competition’s last 32 for only the second time in nine seasons.
Paqueta tested the waters within the opening 45 seconds with a rocket of a shot that whistled only a few inches over, then scored after nine minutes when he arrived late to sidefoot Crysencio Summerville’s pick-out past Robin Olsen.
However, the atmosphere was swiftly soured when Niclas Fullkrug, who missed 10 Premier League games between September and December due to an Achilles injury, limped off after pulling up clutching his hamstring as he rushed forward.
In his post-match press conference, Potter stated: “I would imagine it’s quite a severe hamstring injury when you pull up like that, so that’s a concern for us.”
Villa’s Ross Barkley was also hurt shortly after, upsetting the flow of a first half in which the hosts struggled to make a dent; by halftime, they had managed only one shot.
With more than an hour gone, none of Villa’s shots had found the target – but then the pendulum began to swing in their favor.
Shortly after Lukasz Fabianski saved a strong strike from Ian Maatsen, Villa were awarded a corner, despite Onana’s shot appearing to roll straight out of play, and the Belgian international prodded home from close range in the 71st minute.
Within five minutes, the hosts struck again with a ruthlessly effective move in which Ollie Watkins collected a pass from Emi Buendia and squared for Rogers to score for the first time.
Substitute Jacob Ramsey then slammed a shot off the post as Villa attempted to wrap up the game swiftly, but the miss was insignificant because West Ham could not recover.