by Staff Writer
Saturday, 25th October 2025
The Hammers slipped to a seventh Premier League defeat of the season at Elland Road tonight as they completed the opening quarter of what is already threatening to become a catastrophic campaign.
Tonight's 2-1 defeat in Yorkshire leaves Nuno Espirito Santo's side firmly ensconced in a relegation fight with 29 matches to play, above only winless Wolves in the table and with just four points to show for their efforts in what is now West Ham's worst start to a Premier League season.
Santo - who replaced Graham Potter less than a month ago wore the haunted expression of his predecessor - some may wonder why it has taken so long? - as he shuffled uneasily along the touchline tonight.
And the full extent of the size of the task at hand will now be fully evident to the 51-year-old, whose four games in charge have produced just one of those points - that being in his opening game in charge against predecessor David Moyes' Everton.
Sympathy though for West Ham's new(est) Head Coach might be short in supply after he baffled many fans with another experimental line-up that persisted with inverted full-backs (Scarles and Wan-Bissaka) which, like against Brentford 96 hours earlier, proved an unmitigated disaster - plus Jarrod Bowen as a central striker and Malick Diouf as a left winger.
Santo's tactical intensions appeared to be equally unfamiliar to the players too, who found themselves a goal behind after just three minutes and then two down after 15 minutes, with Aaronson and Rodon accepting gifts from West Ham's benevolent and quite frankly substandard defence.
Having scored just one goal under Santo that was pretty much game over already; it was for the manager's game plan at least, as he replaced the unfortunately injured Scarles (shoulder) for front man Callum WIlson within 10 minutes - hopefully having acknowledged the folly of playing a young player in such an unfamiliar role.
On the bright side, at the least the long-suffering, travelling fans had something to cheer in the final minute of normal time when substitute Mateus Fernandes flicked home a teasing Jarrod Bowen cross to give the Hammers a glimmer of hope of snatching something at the death.
The defeat leaves West Ham three points adrift of 17th-placed Burnley and seven behind tonight's opponents Leeds, who rise to 13th.
We'll have a full match report for you soon...
* Something to say about this story? Please visit the KUMB Forum to leave a comment.