'An impossible task?' Winless run leaves West Ham facing drop

Booed off the pitch after conceding a late winner at home against their relegation rivals and on a 10-game winless run - these are desperate times for West Ham.

The Hammers have been in the Premier League in every campaign since 2012-13, but that stretch is under threat.

On Tuesday, they let a 1-0 lead slip before losing 2-1 to fellow strugglers Nottingham Forest - a result that leaves the Hammers seven points adrift of safety with 17 games to go.

"We will look to the mirror and know the position we are in, and nobody from the squad wants to play second division next season," said West Ham midfielder Tomas Soucek.

"We have to show the honesty between each other. The truth of who cares and who not."

West Ham, who won a European trophy as recently as 2023, have had a wretched campaign, but their fans would have been hoping for some late presents with an attractive post-Christmas fixture list.

Home games against Fulham, Brighton and Nottingham Forest and a trip to bottom-of-the-table Wolves were a chance for the Hammers to get themselves out of trouble.

Of those 12 points available, West Ham picked up just one - and even that came after they had twice thrown away the lead before drawing 2-2 with Brighton.

They conceded a late winner against Fulham, were humiliated 3-0 by Wolves and then again managed to lose after scoring first against Forest, with Morgan Gibbs-White converting a decisive 89th-minute penalty.

At half-time, the Hammers were one point from safety - now they are cut adrift and left facing a huge battle to stay up.

The stats make grim reading.

With four draws and six losses, it is the first time West Ham have gone 10 Premier League games without a win since a run of 11 between December 2006 and March 2007.

Only Bournemouth with 16 have dropped more top-flight points from winning positions than the Hammers' 15, while West Ham have also failed to win any of their past five matches when scoring first.

Boss Nuno Espirito Santo, who guided Nottingham Forest to Europe last season before being dismissed three games into 2025-26, has now picked up 11 points from 16 matches since he replaced the sacked Graham Potter in September.

That is the worst start from any West Ham boss in the Premier League era, with the back-to-back wins over Newcastle and Burnley in November - Nuno's only two successes - quickly fading from memory.

Former West Ham and England goalkeeper Rob Green, speaking on Sky Sports, feels change is needed at London Stadium.

"Ten games without a win you're wondering, where is the answer now? Where do West Ham go now? Where does Nuno go from here? You can't see things continuing much longer with results like this," said Green.

"They need at least 30 points to have any chance of staying up and they're not going to get close at this rate.

"I don't see Nuno staying. I just can't see it how you can go this long 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 an impossible task."

West Ham, with just 14 points all season, have London derbies at Tottenham and Chelsea either side of a tough game at home against Sunderland coming up.

Nuno, who handed a debut to Argentina striker Valentin 'Taty' Castellanos and brought on another January signing in Brazilian forward Pablo Felipe, remained defiant.

"It's not over yet. We keep on going," he said. "We need to keep believing and sticking together.

"We have to keep going, keep believing and keep working. It is not over. Sometimes you have good moments and bad moments but you need to be resilient enough to understand this is the game.

"We understand the fans' frustration and the sadness - we are all the same."

Soucek insisted Nuno still had the players' backing and added: "We have to be behind the manager always, until the end.

"He can be a big help for us because he did a lot through the Premier League already.

"Especially for him I want to keep going and do the maximum, we don't want them to lose their jobs. All of us, even for the fans, we need to stick together."

Nuno Espírito Santo's position as West Ham head coach is heavily under the microscope.

Supporters and pundits have already written off the Portuguese's chances of keeping the club in the Premier League. But the real question to ask is: what do the owners think of the job Nuno is doing?

Well, there is certainly disappointment at the results which have left them rooted in the bottom three.

There is similar sentiment towards the performance of the team and thus the manager.

But the club's hierarchy are desperate to make Nuno's appointment a success.

They are actively backing him in the transfer market. The signings of Pablo Felipe and Taty Castellanos were both players selected by Nuno.

So to pull the rug from under him, having made signings on the manager's recommendation, would seem nonsensical. But the threat of relegation can radically change the direction of travel.

West Ham are seven points adrift from safety. That scenario will really test the board's backing of their under-pressure boss.