Some traditional East End values will always remain, though, and with all eyes on the Argentinian duo, it was life-long Hammers supporter and local lad Bobby Zamora who salvaged a point for Alan Pardew's side with his fifth goal of the season.
The in-form West Ham striker's 52nd-minute equaliser wiped out Liam Ridgewell's fourth-minute opener to keep him at the top of the Premiership goal-scoring charts.
Earlier, the South American pair had to make do with places on the bench as Pardew made a pre-match plea to the Hammers fans to respect his decision not to start the World Cup stars at the beginning of a new era at the club.
Villa, unbeaten in their first three matches, made two changes from the side that beat Newcastle United a fortnight ago as Martin O'Neill recalled Martin Laursen and handed a debut to Stilian Petrov, his £6.5million signing from Celtic.
And the Midlanders wasted no time silencing that South American samba beat, when Gareth Barry's fourth-minute corner was met by the gliding Gabriel Agbonlahor whose point-blank header was parried by Roy Carroll, only for Ridgewell to bundle the loose ball over the line.
Hammers, however, should have levelled just three minutes later, when Thomas Sorensen scuffed Ridgewell's back-pass to Marlon Harewood just ten yards out, but the red-faced goalkeeper had the let-off of his life as the equally exasperated and embarrassed striker somehow screwed his shot wide of goal.
On the quarter-hour mark, Barry's next corner was met by another thumping point-blank header but, this time, Juan Pablo Angel sent the ball crashing off the crossbar.
And after Harewood hacked off his own goal-line following more mayhem in the Hammers area, Angel met Barry's well-flighted left-wing cross with another header that skimmed off the top of Carroll's crossbar.
Just before the break, Nigel Reo-Coker served due notice that the East-Enders were somehow still hanging in there with a barnstorming run and low, long-ranger that scorched only an inch or so wide.
Certainly, the hosts emerged for the second half looking far livelier and within seconds of the restart, Harewood drilled a low angled shot behind before Laursen's brave goal-line tackle denied Zamora at the base of the right-hand upright.
But Zamora's disappointment turned to delight just moments later, when Lee Bowyer's corner to the edge of the box was headed back through a pack of bodies by Paul Konchesky and the Hammers striker, just six yards out, applied the faintest of touches to equalise with that chart-topping fifth goal of the campaign.
Despite losing their advantage, Villa still pressed and after man-of-the-match Petrov was denied a debut goal when Tyrone Mears acrobatically hooked the Bulgarian's clever chip off the line, Carroll beat out Barry's shot and Anton Ferdinand scrambled Agbonlahor's goal-bound effort clear.
On the hour, Tevez finally stepped up from the bench as Harewood stood down and he was soon treating an audience of 34,576 to some trademark neat touches and a shot that flew just over.
The introduction of Matthew Etherington and Carlton Cole, however, meant that there was to be no debut for Mascherano but the East-Enders' disappointment was at least tempered by the fact that their local hero, Zamora, had denied Villa the victory that their performance possibly deserved.