West Ham United have dropped to fifth in the Championship without kicking a ball after Swansea City and Middlesbrough both secured dramatic late victories on Tuesday night. The results leave Nuno Espírito Santo’s Hammers seven points behind the league leaders ahead of tonight’s trip to Lincoln City.
Swansea snatched a 1-0 victory at Millwall through a 90th-minute Ronald winner, while Middlesbrough secured all three points at Stoke City thanks to Neto Borges scoring in the 91st minute. Both clubs are beginning to build a gap over West Ham, who have drawn their last two Championship fixtures.
The situation is not yet desperate, particularly with the Hammers having played one game fewer than both promotion rivals. However, tonight’s match at Lincoln and Saturday’s visit to Swansea are beginning to look like fixtures Nuno simply cannot afford to get wrong.
West Ham’s promotion rivals refuse to blink
Swansea now have 23 points from ten matches, with Middlesbrough just two points behind on 21. West Ham remain on 16 points from nine games, while Birmingham City and West Bromwich Albion have also moved above us following victories last night.
Meanwhile, Wolves suffered another defeat, losing 3-1 at home to Bolton Wanderers. Birmingham’s 4-0 victory over Preston was another result worth noting, with the Blues emerging as potential promotion contenders.
What concerns me most is that Swansea and Middlesbrough are finding ways to win matches that could easily have finished level.
Draws are absolutely fine when they’re punctuating winning form. What isn’t acceptable for a club chasing the title is consecutive draws, particularly when your closest rivals are collecting maximum points.
Nuno Espírito Santo oversees West Ham training at Rush Green ahead of two very important games
West Ham face two games that could change everything
I’ve never been particularly keen on labelling every other fixture a must-win match. However, I genuinely believe West Ham’s next two games fall into that category, even if the mathematics suggest otherwise.
Swansea were never my favourites to win the Championship this season, and they still aren’t. Nevertheless, we simply cannot allow them to build such a substantial advantage at the top of the division.
Beat Lincoln tonight and Swansea on Saturday, and West Ham will have 22 points from 11 matches. That’s exactly two points per game, which represents a projected 92-point season.
Suddenly, the promotion picture would look considerably healthier.
But lose tonight, or fail to beat Lincoln and then follow it with another poor result against Swansea, and I believe Nuno Espírito Santo will come under immense pressure. Indeed, I suspect there would be genuine calls for him to be sacked.
As I argued in yesterday’s Lincoln City match preview, the situation could change very quickly in either direction.
Win both games and I don’t even think Nuno’s future will be a conversation. The recent criticism will largely disappear, and West Ham will be back on the sort of points-per-game average expected of an automatic promotion contender.
Fail to respond, however, and those seven points separating us from Swansea will start to look increasingly uncomfortable.
So…if I understand it correctly, winning is good and losing is bad? 🙂
If we win both of these games, that won’t end the speculation on Nuno. Every lean spell will result in talk about Nuno’s approach to games.
However, it’s a long season – not winning both of these is a recoverable position.
If Taty’s penalty against Charlton hadn’t hit the post we’d be unbeaten. Lots of ‘if’s’ in this game, isn’t there!
As if Kretinsky would care if there are calls for Nuno to be sacked if we don’t get anything out of these games. He’s not a knee jerk owner, as we have seen already. I’m sure he didn’t get where he was by listening to people throwing their toys out of their prams when things aren’t going the way they want them to be!!
Nuno speaks many repetitive words but its action that’s needed.
Clean sheets would also help
Bit early in the season to be pressing the panic button Gonzo. This is an extremely competitive league where any team can beat any other team. I suspect that had Bowen converted his penalty against QPR this piece probably wouldn’t have been penned. 37 games to go which should favour the better quality teams with a large squad to fall back on, rising to the top over the longer term. COYI!
I like this! ⚒️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️🫧🫧🫧🏆😋
Could be a 10 point gap after Saturday if results go badly for us