West Ham put in one of the worst home performances you’re ever likely to see at the London Stadium on Monday evening, with Brentford easing to a 2-0 win almost completely unchallenged.
West Ham suffer humbling Premier League defeat to Brentford at home
In what was Nuno Espírito Santo’s first home game in charge, the Portuguese was greeted with swathes of empty seats as a host of West Ham supporters boycotted the match in protest of David Sullivan, Karren Brady and the ownership.
For the supporters who did show up to welcome Nuno to east London, they weren’t exactly rewarded for their faith.
Sunderland 3-0 West Ham
West Ham 1-5 Chelsea
Nottingham Forest 0-3 West Ham
West Ham 0-3 Tottenham
West Ham 1-2 Crystal Palace
Everton 1-1 West Ham
Arsenal 2-0 West Ham
West Ham 0-2 Brentford
Keith Andrews’ Brentford absolutely dominated proceedings, having a seismic 17 shots on goal compared to West Ham’s seven, with the home side only managing to test Caoimhin Kelleher once all evening through Jarrod Bowen.
By contrast, it looked like target practice for Brentford at times, who will consider themselves very unfortunate not to come away from West Ham with a much bigger winning margin.
Alphonse Areola made some superb saves on the night, with both Igor Thiago and Kevin Schade hitting the crossbar, while the former also had a goal chalked off by VAR just before half-time.
Nuno’s starting line-up against the Bees was an interesting one to say the least, with Oliver Scarles and Kyle Walker-Peters starting in very different full-back roles on their opposing sides.
Amid West Ham’s current striker crisis, Nuno also elected to play Lucas Paqueta as the number nine — an experiment which largely failed as the Brazilian failed to impress and lost possession 23 times.
As opposed to a more dynamic pairing of Soungoutou Magassa and Freddie Potts, Nuno instead went with Tomas Soucek and Andy Irving as West Ham’s holding midfielders in a 4-2-3-1, with the Hammers’ engine room absolutely dominated by a more energetic and free-flowing Brentford side.
Nuno raised plenty of eyebrows with his bizarre team selection, and that certainly didn’t help West Ham, who set a very unwanted record.
After the defeat to Brentford, West Ham have now lost their first four home games of the season for the first time in the club’s history, and relegation is looking more and more like a major possibility as the weeks go on.
While the players have to take massive responsibility for what was a dismal home performance, Nuno is facing the wrath of critics.
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Paqueta looked disconnected and bereft of support, leaving West Ham’s attack blunt and predictable.
Meanwhile, the midfield pairing of Soucek and Irving also fell short. The former struggled to influence the game creatively, while Irving appeared out of his depth in a demanding Premier League clash.
Their lack of cohesion and creativity in midfield allowed Brentford to dominate possession and control the tempo, with Nuno’s defence also suffering.
The decision to use Walker-Peters and Scarles as on their opposite sides just didn’t work at all, as they struggled to contain Brentford’s wide threats or contribute anything of note going forward.
Jean-Clair Todibo, who came straight back into the starting eleven after being left out of Nuno’s first two matchday squads, didn’t cover himself in glory either, with Max Kilman having a nightmare alongside the Frenchman.
In the aftermath of their loss, Nuno refused to blame his selection, but it undoubtedly contributed towards a real night to forget for West Ham.
“I think it worked out. The idea for the game was that we had to work together, compact. It does not matter if [I start] Andy or other players,” Nuno said.
“I think we have to train and achieve that all the players have their opportunities to show themselves so we can try to find better solutions.
“At half-time we changed it because things stop working and we looked for another situation to try and get more solid, more compact in behind [and] not allow too many chances so we can bounce back from the result.”
