Under-pressure West Ham boss Nuno Espirito Santo has vowed to keep on believing his team can avoid relegation despite another gut-wrenching defeat at home to Nottingham Forest.

The London side, who are without a win in 10 matches, took the lead after 13 minutes when Crysencio Summerville’s excellent left-sided delivery was flicked on by Tomas Soucek before Forest defender Murillo inadvertently headed the ball into his own net.

However, nerves began to kick-in during the second half of what was described as a ‘relegation cup-final’ as Nuno’s former club managed by Sean Dyche ramped up the pressure by scoring from an in-swinging corner with Nicolas Dominguez heading in Elliot Anderson’s delivery.

Escaping with a point would hardly been a great result for the Hammers, but things got even worse in the dying moments of the game when Morgan Gibbs-White tucked away a late penalty after an error from Alphonse Areola.

West Ham were booed off the pitch by supporters after a fifth defeat in six matches left the club seven points away from safety and in serious jeopardy of being relegated back to the second-tier for the first time since 2013.

‘I don’t see another answer’ – West Ham boss at serious risk of being fired

On 27 September 2025, Nuno was appointed West Ham boss on a three-year contract following the dismissal of unpopular former boss Graham Potter, who left the London Stadium with statistically the worst win-rate of any Hammers manager.

Nuno was credited with leading Forest to Europe for the first time since the 1990s last season, and was hired to a fair degree of fan approval after being harshly dismissed at the City Ground by owner Evangelos Marinakis earlier in the campaign for factors which seemed to be centred more on off-the-pitch matters than results on the pitch after arguably the club’s best year of the 21st century.

Many expected the Portuguese coach to change the script after a calamitous start to life in east-London, but he’s instead turned the club into an even more worrying chapter after picking up just 11 points from 16 matches – marking the worst start of any manager in the club’s history.

“You can’t see things continuing much longer with results like this,” explained former goalkeeper Rob Green on Sky Sports.

“I don’t see Nuno staying. I just just can’t see how long you can go without winning a game. Tonight wasn’t the worst performance by a long shot and they still didn’t get a result.

“It’s heartbreaking but I don’t see another answer. It’s looking more and more like an impossible task.

Why West Ham United must stick by Nuno Espirito Santo

Nuno’s start to life at West Ham has been nothing short of a disaster, leaving him at huge risk of making unwanted history by becoming the first manager to be sacked by two top-flight clubs in a Premier League season.

It’s a prospect that would have seemed unthinkable this time 12 months ago when Chris Wood was named Player of the Month while his Forest side were defying the odds in third position, but at the moment looks to be the most likely outcome.

However, it’s worth acknowledging that Nuno joined West Ham in difficult circumstances after an underwhelming transfer window which had seen Potter lose Mohammed Kudus to Spurs while replacing him with the big-money signings of Mads Hermansen (£20m), a goalkeeper that’s not even first choice, Jean-Clair Todibo for £32.8m despite an underwhelming loan spell, and Mateus Fernandes, who was relegated with Southampton, for £42m. The club also signed the experienced Callum Wilson on a free transfer from Newcastle, but are now considering terminating his contract.

Nuno has had to work largely with the group Potter and his predecessor Julen Lopetegui assembled over the last few seasons following what now looks like an increasingly poor decision to sack David Moyes back in 2024.

The Portuguese coach has had limited time to make the club his own and mould the team in his image. His first signings for example Pablo, who scored 10 in 13 during the first half of the campaign with Gil Vicente and Taty Castellanos, who registered 10 league goals for Lazio last term, have both only been in the door a matter of days after extensive research. Would a new manager select these players to sign anyway?

Ultimately, Nuno has proven in the past that he can work well in the transfer market at both Nottingham Forest and Wolves – and should be given time to at least try and turn the corner at West Ham over the winter window having made small alterations already.

The managerial market is fairly scarce at this moment in time, and Nuno has a vastly superior record in management to Slaven Bilic or Michael Carrick, who are the favourites to take on the role if the Portuguese coach does indeed get the axe.

West Ham fans also won’t want to think about it at this point in time, but Nuno also has a superb track record in the Championship from his time with Wolves where he led them to the title at a canter in 2017/18 – picking up 99 points while attracting stars like Ruben Neves, Diogo Jota and Willy Bolly to the second-tier.

The sensible thing to do at this stage would be to give Nuno more time. It might not be the most popular call or the most likely outcome, but it’s the one that’d give the Hammers the best chance of climbing out of trouble.