West Ham’s miserable Premier League campaign continued with a defeat at Leeds on Friday which ensured their worst start to a season for 52 years.
The result was their third consecutive defeat under new manager Nuno Espirito Santo, who remains winless since replacing Graham Potter in September.
The Hammers, who sit 19th in the table, have recorded just one win this season and ironically it arrived against Nottingham Forest, when Nuno was in charge at the City Ground.
A dismal return of just four points in total represents West Ham’s joint-worst at this stage of a league campaign, with the club replicating that tally in the second tier in 1932-33, and in the top flight in 1973-74 – although on both occasions they just managed to avoid relegation.
Having been appointed with the task of making sure West Ham don’t go down, which would leave them outside the Premier League for the first time since 2011-12, Nuno, who took a point in his first match against Everton, is struggling to find answers.
“There are many problems in our club unfortunately. It is not up to us to hide ourselves behind the problems. Everyone has to be alive and to do much more and be in the right position,” said the Portuguese.
“We were not dealing with our defensive situations and I felt like we needed a striker to hold the ball, so maybe that’s not the greatest from me.
“These kind of mistakes are unacceptable in the Premier League.”
Nuno, also the first West Ham boss to fail to record a win from any of his first four Premier League games since Manuel Pellegrini in September 2018, added: “There is quality there, there is time, but nothing will happen if we don’t change.
“We must change our attitude, we must change the way we approach things, we must commit ourselves better, prepare better, work harder.
“All the things – that is the reality. We don’t expect things to change by themselves. Realising we have time can be a mistake if we don’t change things around quickly.”
