By No manager should really be under pressure after just two games, but it is hard to excuse his side’s disappointing performances, He has won just five of his 21 games so far and, having conceded three against Sunderland, West Ham have shipped eight goals across their first two games of a top-flight campaign for the first time ever.
Potter is also the first Hammers Manager in Premier League history to fail to get into double figures for points in his first 10 home games, taking just nine, courtesy of two wins, three draws and five defeats.
The former Brighton and Chelsea boss knows he and the players have to do better, saying afterwards: “It’s the reality, but we’ve had a tough week, “We’ve played two matches and we’ve conceded eight goals, there’s no getting away from that, so that has to drastically improve.”
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West Ham made five signings in the summer, with highly rated full-back El Hadji Malick Diouf, goalkeeper Mads Hermansen and former Newcastle striker Callum Wilson among those to arrive.
Despite that, there’s been little sign of improvement on the pitch., Defensively they are proving extremely vulnerable from set-pieces, with three of the five goals they conceded against Chelsea coming from them – and Hermansen at fault for two as he struggled to deal with corners.
Captain Jarrod Bowen summed up the hurt inside the West Ham dressing room as he told Sky Sports: “Fuming. Disappointing. All the emotions that come with being on the back of conceding eight goals in two games and not picking up a point yet.
“I thought the goals were really cheap on our behalf. We didn’t really make them work for those three from set-pieces, which we’ve always prided ourselves on over the years and a couple more finishes inside the six-yard box, We gifted the goals away.”
Former West Ham and Chelsea goalkeeper Rob Green said on Sky Sports: “It was just so far from good enough, “The goals they concede, how they’ve gone about it, the energy that’s not there in the side, and already you’re going to be worried, “It’s such a long time to wait until the next game. You’ve got to sit and live through this and it is a brutal experience.”
Though It is of course very early to suggest that a relegation battle beckons for West Ham this season, but there’s no doubt it is a significant concern for many of their supporters right now, With one goal scored and eight conceded, they are currently showing that worrying combination of struggling to score and letting in plenty, which does not bode well for aspirations of avoiding a season of struggle.
Potter knows he is under pressure, and how these next few weeks pan out – both in terms of results on the pitch and business in the transfer market – will have a big say on his future.
