Struggling West Ham desperate for improvement
Crisis club West Ham have already made their joint worst start after nine fixtures of a league campaign. If they lose to Newcastle on Sunday they will have registered eight league defeats from their opening 10 games for the first time in their history.
And the bad statistics do not stop there. This is the earliest into a league campaign that the Hammers have conceded 20 goals since 1967-68. They have also faced the second most shots (133) and have the second worst expected goals against total (15.2) in the top flight.
The nine goals they have let in from corners is triple the amount of any other side and the most in history after nine matches of a Premier League season.
At the other end of the pitch, only Nottingham Forest have scored fewer goals than their seven.
Facing Newcastle has historically provided little solace. West Ham have won just two of their last 12 top-flight games against the Geordies, both of which came away, and Eddie Howe’s side are unbeaten in their last six visits to the London Stadium.
Howe has only won more Premier League matches against Aston Villa (eight) than the seven he has against West Ham (D6, L4). He is also on a three-match winning streak against Nuno Espirito Santo.
Speaking of Nuno, the new manager bounce has certainly not materialised at West Ham for the Portuguese, and if anything performances have arguably got worse.
He has never previously lost four Premier League matches in a row, a record he will be desperate to protect as he plots to stop the Hammers’ slide.
