Nuno sack surely sealed as West Ham boss let down by liability vs Nottm Forest despite £57m boost | OneFootball

West Ham United’s new nadir against Wolves left this season’s woeful performers, and uninspiring head coach Nuno Espirito Santo, with no choice but to beat Nottingham Forest in a gigantic relegation six-pointer on Tuesday night, in which they left empty-handed…

Forest headed into the game on a run of four consecutive Premier League losses, and even so, it was widely assumed before this match that a win was a formality against this West Ham side.

The statistics make for grim reading if you are associated with West Ham, whose last clean sheet came 17 games ago against Forest in August’s 3-0 win, which, interestingly, sealed Nuno‘s exit from the City Ground.

Now, Nuno headed into West Ham’s return fixture against Forest with an increasingly realistic chance of becoming the first manager to be sacked twice in a single season.

This felt certain after the “pathetic” display against Wolves, with West Ham averaging fewer points, scoring fewer goals and conceding more under Nuno than former boss Graham Potter.

With Nuno allegedly ‘on the verge’ of the sack with the Forest match ‘at most’ given to save himself, he has been backed by the arrival of two strikers, Taty Castellanos and Pablo Felipe, bought for around £57m combined.

This last-ditch Hail Mary was intended to provide a solution to West Ham’s long-term striker problem as Callum Wilson heads towards an exit, and these two signings helped to inspire a response from their new teammates against Forest.

Taty, from the start, and Pablo, off the bench, were real bright sparks for West Ham, who took the lead via a Murillo own goal inside the opening 15 minutes.

Tomas Soucek’s flick on from Crysensio Summerville’s corner was diverted into his own net by Murillo, with the only other clear sights on goal in the half coming from Forest, who forced a great Alphonse Areola from Neco Williams’ shot before Callum Hudson-Odoi hit the bar from range.

It was an engaging game for the neutral, albeit one that sorely lacked quality in the final third, as it evidenced why these two sides have been among the worst in the Premier League this season.

But West Ham’s early goal set up an agonisingly frustrating evening for Forest, who were always going to face the threat of being hit on the counter-attack.

The Hammers did just that as Summerville clinically drilled the ball into the bottom corner from the edge of the box after 51 minutes, which was ultimately ruled out for the narrowest of offsides.

And West Ham were given another gutpunch moments later, with Nicolas Dominguez unintentionally finding the net with a looping header from an Elliott Anderson corner.

At the time, it looked as if Forest would lack the necessary creative spark to salvage something from the game, and there was still little to separate the sides for the remainder of the half.

So, Nuno can be forgiven for looking like a beaten man when his side were the route of their own downfall in the match’s closing stages, with the erratic Areola gifting Forest a penalty for whacking Morgan Gibbs-White on the face when attempting to punch clear a free-kick.

West Ham will not like it, but it just is a penalty.

Gibbs-White then converted by sending Areola the wrong way, the majority of the home supporters at the London Stadium to the exits, and Forest seven points clear of West Ham in the final relegation place.

Forest edged the game, had more quality in vital moments and a bit of good fortune to earn a priceless victory that is a blow for the neutrals’ hopes of a proper relegation battle this season.

Following their system change, Leeds have enough resilience and newfound threat in attack to ease themselves to safety, while Forest have the Sean Dyche trump card and the individual quality of certain key players to carry them.

Wolves and Burnley already look dead and buried, while the same can be said for West Ham, who now have very little choice but to roll the dice with another manager’s sacking in an unlikely attempt to save a club that was doomed long before Santo arrived.