West Ham have been relegated from the Premier League under Nuno Espirito Santo, but they would have stayed up if he’d been appointed earlier.
After parting company with David Moyes in 2024, the Hammers appointed Julen Lopetegui and backed him heavily in the transfer market.
However, it quickly became apparent that Lopetegui wasn’t the right man for the job, and he was dismissed at the start of January, with West Ham sat 14th in the Premier League.
Graham Potter was his replacement, but won just six of his 25 matches in charge before being dismissed.
Nuno was brought in after his sacking by Nottingham Forest and earned a 1-1 draw at Everton in his first match as Hammers boss.
But the strugglers swiftly lost to Arsenal, Brentford and Leeds in a series of increasingly disappointing performances.
Nuno enjoyed a brief respite with back-to-back victories at home to Newcastle and Burnley in early November, but West Ham never really had a new manager bounce, and come early January they appeared destined for the drop.
But the Hammers improved markedly after that. Between mid-January and the end of the season, Nuno’s team picked up 25 points from 17 games. Only five teams, including Arsenal and the two Manchester clubs, were in better form.
Perhaps this explains why West Ham have kept faith with Nuno ahead of their first second-tier season in 15 years, choosing not to sack the Portuguese manager.
Even considering his poor record between September and January, West Ham would still have survived relegation if Nuno had taken charge of the entire season.
Four defeats in their opening five games, conceding 13 goals in the process, ultimately sank them.
Note: to create this table, we’ve used our sister site Football365 and their brilliant Premier League Tables resource – a goldmine for creating and exploring custom tables.
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