The nature of West Ham United’s defeat at Chelsea was perhaps the most worrying aspect, and it did not reflect at all well on Nuno Espirito Santo.
It was, after all, a mistake he had made before. And, yes, Nuno does use the word ‘mistake’.
That Chelsea collapse was extremely similar to the Bournemouth draw in November, or the Brighton stalemate a few weeks later. Nuno Espirito Santo took off attacking players, brought on defensive substitutes, and saw West Ham United give up the initiative.
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Mateus Fernandes of West Ham United celebrates scoring his team's third goal during the Premier League match between West Ham United and Sunderland at London Stadium on January 24, 2026 in London, England.
West Ham have dropped 18 points from losing positions this season, now. 15 of those have been given away under Nuno. For context, he has only picked up 17 in that time.
Nuno received heavy criticism for introducing Max Kilman in place of the impressive, industrious Pablo Felipe at Stamford Bridge when the visitors were 2-1 up.
Like against Bournemouth and Brighton, the head coach removed one of his most useful attacking outlets while leading. As a result, West Ham found themselves camped in their own penalty area, inviting pressure, and unable to get up the pitch.
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Nuno Espirito Santo reflects on West Ham United ‘mistake’ against Chelsea and Max Kilman sub
On a more positive note, speaking ahead of Saturday’s trip to fellow basement-dwellers Burnley, Nuno did at least give the impression of a man determined to ensure history does not repeat itself yet again.
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“I’m never happy! It’s always a difficult situation to say you are happy because we cannot be happy with what’s happening after the game that we played. So I’m not happy,” Nuno said.
“Every time we do something, we look to try and create and find a better solution. If things don’t go well, you realise you probably made a mistake!
Nuno Espirto Santo reacts after West Ham lose to Chelsea.
Photo by Richard Pelham/Getty Images
“It’s not about names,” he hit back when Kilman was brought up. “We wanted to close the game down. We felt the game was going through a difficult spell.
“In the first-half, we expended a lot of energy; pressing high, going high, and playing such good football on the offensive. After 55 or 60 minutes, we felt this energy went away and we wanted to rebalance the team. [The change] didn’t work out.
“It still hurts everybody. We felt the game was ours to take, so it still hurts. But we move forward. The positive; we played really good football. Really good football. Let’s keep these standards for all the remaining games. If our standards are there, if we play this good, we are going to be OK.
“You have to feel it and it still hurts, but we are ready to go again and meet these high standards in our game.”
Hammers should have Axel Disasi and Adama Traore available at Burnley
The indefatigable Pablo produced a display reminiscent of his namesake Fornals, in the eyes of a few Hammers fans. Together with Taty Castellanos, West Ham’s new forward duo hassled and harangued Chelsea during a supreme first-half performance.
For the second time in Nuno’s tenure, his side went 2-0 up but failed to close the game out. So, if West Ham find themselves two to the good at Turf Moor, would he again introduce Kilman or another centre-half? Perhaps not.
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The good thing is that, with Freddie Potts, Soungoutou Magassa, Ollie Scarles, Callum Wilson and Adama Traore all on the bench last time out, Nuno now has plenty of options to pick from.
Axel Disasi could make his West Ham debut, too.
“We are trying to find the right solution,” the former Wolves, Nottingham Forest and Tottenham boss admits. “It’s frustrating to know we normally start the games so well but we cannot sustain them or close the game down.
“That means many points we let get away from us. It’s frustrating, but we are trying to find the solutions.
“We cannot block it out. We cannot ignore it. We analyse together what we did wrong so it cannot happen again. What I say to the players is, ‘let’s try and sustain this level of performance throughout the game’.”
Nuno says clean sheets are a must as club record looms
West Ham have not kept a clean sheet since August. Ironically, when they beat Nuno’s Nottingham Forest 3-0 at the City Ground. Should Burnley find a way past Alphonse Areola, this would equal a club-record; 24 successive games without a clean sheet.
“[We have to] keep the offensive, keep scoring, and try for a clean sheet! For that, we maybe have to find other solutions,” Nuno admits.
“It starts from the back. We have to keep clean sheets and defend properly. When you score two goals away from home, normally it’s yours to take. It’s hard knowing the way we are defending now; our defensive shape is high. It requires a lot of energy, running, and covering.
“There will be a moment when you cannot control it. For example, when Chelsea put five players on the last line. You have to drop your lines and defend the box, and that is our main issue. I think we should defend our box better.”
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