West Ham's Championship promotion bid suffered another setback on Saturday as a 3-1 home defeat to West Brom left them eighth in the table, six points behind leaders Middlesbrough.
The Hammers had appeared strong promotion contenders two weeks ago, having beaten nine-man Lincoln City 6-0 and won away to promotion rivals Swansea. However, back-to-back defeats by Southampton and West Brom have ended that momentum.
Match details
West Brom took the lead after 20 minutes through Felix Horn Myhre, but Jarrod Bowen equalised nine minutes later with his seventh goal of the campaign. Shortly after half-time, Jimmy-Jay Morgan, a Chelsea academy product, restored the visitors' lead after capitalising on an error from Airidas Golambeckis, who was standing in for the injured Konstantinos Mavropanos. Callum Styles added a third later on, following a slip by Morato.
Defensive fragility has been a recurring issue for West Ham this season, and the defeat left them winless in their last four home matches, a run that includes missed last-gasp penalties against Charlton and QPR which cost them points.
Pressure on Nuno
Home fans voiced their frustration, while travelling supporters taunted Nuno with chants of "You're getting sacked in the morning." While there is no indication that such a change is imminent, the manager acknowledged the pressure.
"This is the reality: we can only change this if we win games. The solution is results, we have to go back to results," Nuno said. "When you lose at home to Charlton, Southampton and West Brom, the only solution is to improve our game."
He added: "There is pressure every day. We have conceded six goals at home in two games and we have to fix it. That cannot happen. In the first half we were too far away from each other and for the second goal we allowed too much time, with no cover in the box."
West Ham will need to address their home form and defensive errors to revive their promotion push in the coming weeks.
