After watching yet another home defeat, it sunk in that West Ham find themselves in a perilous situation. The teams above them continue to pick up points, and outside of securing victories of their own, their survival hopes now also hinge on others being dragged into the relegation battle.
Nottingham Forest’s revival under Sean Dyche, four wins from six only adds to Nuno’s frustration.
The harsh reality is that clubs like Bournemouth, despite collecting just two points from their last six matches (one of those against West Ham), had already built a sufficient cushion earlier in the season to stay seven points clear. Even Tottenham, with only five points from a possible eighteen, remain nine points ahead.
There are signs of improvement, though. West Ham have taken six points from their last six games—one win, three draws, and two defeats. Yet costly lapses at Bournemouth and Brighton squandered four points that would have lifted them above Leeds United and out of the drop zone. At the time many questioned Nuno’s tactical tinkering at Elland Road, where a more settled approach might have yielded at least a point instead of a 2-1 defeat. The same criticism applies to the home loss against Brentford.
Maybe that’s harsh as it’s worth remembering that the opening six fixtures brought just one win and three points, conceding 16 goals. A run that ultimately cost Graham Potter his job.
Since arriving, Nuno has introduced futsal-inspired drills to sharpen close control and passing, encouraged more progressive football, and placed particular emphasis on defending set pieces. Yet the glaring issue remains, West Ham lack a reliable striker to lead the line, something his predecessor insisted was unnecessary.
Nuno is in my opinion unquestionably the right man for the role, but I sense West Ham will need more than 40 points to secure survival. A run of successive victories would ease the tension—though where those wins will come is anyone’s guess?
And while I don’t want to massage the egos of the careful what you wish for parade, it’s hard to ignore Everton, where David Moyes has steered them to within touching distance of European qualification.
For West Ham, survival will depend on unity, resilience, and belief. With a number of former players within the back room staff, and an understanding of the history behind the club, if the players embrace Billy Bonds’ mantra—“Side before self”—remember Bobby Moore’s call to “play for the shirt”—and take Trevor Brooking’s advice to “play with freedom” then perhaps Nuno and his team can still deliver a miracle worthy of the club’s proud tradition.
A second “Great Escape“?
I truly hope so! COYI!
We were unlucky against Villa who scored with most of their attacks which is rare, were robbed versus Brighton and got tactics wrong against Bournemouth otherwise we could have been on 20 points
Some of that is on Nuno but looked at through another lens 2 months ago we would have capitulated in most games and are broadly improving, we are woefully lacking in squad depth have centre backs that aren’t quite at the level needed, are weak up top if you take Bowen away, am still not convinced by Areola either and yet feel the young players in the squad are showing great character, if we can get another 8 or 9 wins we can stay up and arguably Forest, Leeds, Fulham and Brentford could get dragged into the trouble if we have a good start to 2026 and good finish to this year.
Let’s do this COYi!!!
It’s safe to write off the City game and maybe use it as a game to sharpen up defensively for post Xmas
“Side before self”. Lucas Paqueta does not fit that brief, unfortunately. The sooner we get rid of him the better. We did look pretty good for a while against Villa and I even thought we just might win the game. It’s a pity we were our own worst enemy with an own goal from Mav with Paqueta as usual costing us a goal. Then we had nothing much on the bench to change our fortunes and Nuno seemingly in a continued state of paralysis when it comes to making the best choices. We really are looking like a certainty for relegation now. Sad.
We need to get rid of obvious mistakes by manager and players. Team was more progressive against Villa which was great to see, but we were undone by bad substitutions, losing possession in midfield but also upfront throughout the match. Summerville is young and will learn, but needs help making right decisions, otherwise he’ll be as pointless as Kudus. Paqueta needs time on the bench.
My point is that these little things are costing invaluable points, despite the fantastic progress NES has brought and the players themselves. Maybe we are nearly there, need a few lucky breaks, we need to continue scoring goals (and that is a concern), but for the moment we are still hanging on by our fingertips; still in the fight.
Everything you mention about team spirit, togetherness and a will to fight is there more and more each game and those players who do not feel that way (Fullkrug) cannot play, because otherwise we’ll lose more points. Those who do show that fight and application should play and that will include the less likely ones, such as Wilson & Soucek. Well done to NES for brining in Kante who shows that fighting spirit at U21s and I reckon Marshall would bring that to a game in buckets even if deemed not PL ready. I am guessing that that fighting spirit you mention, is part of Sunderland’s success,
You mention Moyes, but its significant that he has re-united with his long standing assistant at Everton. At West Ham he was helped by him during his initial successful phase but when his assistant returned to Mersyside for family reasons success left the building at the same time.
Its a double act that needs both of them to work. A more notable example of that was Clough & Taylor
I thought we played really well yesterday. Deffo improving.No need to panic.Hailf the season left.