Nuno's West Ham Exit Looms After Nottingham Forest Collapse Renders £57m Gamble Pointless

The writing appears firmly on the wall for Nuno Espirito Santo at West Ham. A limp display against Wolves had already set alarm bells ringing, but Tuesday night's defeat to Nottingham Forest—a side that arrived having lost four consecutive league matches—has surely sealed the Portuguese manager's fate.

West Ham needed this one. They desperately needed it. Instead, they contrived to lose to opponents who, by any reasonable measure, looked there for the taking. Worse still, a Forest outfit that appeared toothless for large stretches left the London Stadium with three points, while the Hammers trudged off empty-handed in what amounted to a genuine six-pointer in the Premier League's basement.

The statistics paint a grim picture for anyone wearing claret and blue. West Ham haven't kept a clean sheet in 17 games—their last one coming way back in August against Forest itself, the very fixture that precipitated Nuno's departure from the City Ground. Now he's returned, and the situation has only deteriorated. Under his stewardship, the club has averaged fewer points, scored fewer goals, and conceded more than they did under his predecessor Graham Potter. That's a damning indictment.

Before kickoff, there was genuine talk of Nuno becoming the first manager ever to be sacked twice in a single calendar year. The Forest match was positioned as his final roll of the dice—the last throw of the dice, really.

In an attempt to stave off the inevitable, West Ham threw £57m at the problem in the form of two new strikers: Taty Castellanos and Pablo Felipe. This was a last-gasp attempt to address the club's chronic striker shortage as Callum Wilson edges towards the exit. On the night, both men showed genuine promise and offered real encouragement in attacking areas. But individual performances, however encouraging, cannot mask systemic failures.

West Ham did take the lead through an own goal. Crysensio Summerville's corner found Tomas Soucek, whose flick-on was inadvertently diverted past his own goalkeeper by Nottingham Forest's Murillo. A gift, but they'd take it.

The opening half lacked any great quality, truth be told. Both sides demonstrated precisely why they're languishing in the lower reaches of the table. Forest did force an excellent save from Alphonse Areola following Neco Williams' effort, while Callum Hudson-Odoi rattled the crossbar from distance, but clear-cut opportunities remained sparse.

Then came the sucker punch. Summerville broke clear and drilled a clinical finish into the bottom corner on 51 minutes—only for the flag to go up for the tightest of offsides calls. Shortly after, Nicolas Dominguez looped a header past Areola following an Elliott Anderson corner, and Forest had turned the match on its head.

The decisive moment, though, came courtesy of Areola's own recklessness. With the match in its closing stages, the West Ham keeper lunged out to punch clear a free-kick and instead caught Morgan Gibbs-White flush in the face. Penalty, no question about it. Gibbs-White converted, sending Areola the wrong way, and the home crowd headed for the exits as Forest secured a priceless victory that moves them seven points clear of their hosts in the relegation standings.

Forest edged the contest, showed more quality when it mattered, and benefited from a slice of good fortune. For West Ham, it was another evening defined by their own failings—a self-inflicted wound that leaves their survival hopes hanging by a thread.

Nuno can expect the axe. The club will almost certainly look to make another managerial change in a desperate attempt to spark a revival. Whether that will prove sufficient remains highly doubtful. West Ham's problems run far deeper than any one individual, and a fresh face in the dugout may merely delay the inevitable.