West Ham boss David Moyes is reportedly coming under increasing pressure amid his side's dreadful start to the new season.
The Hammers have won just one of their opening seven Premier League games, leaving them in the relegation zone. That solitary victory came a month ago, with Moyes' side currently on a three-games winless run ahead of the visit of Wolves on Saturday.
It is far from the standards that have been expected of West Ham since Moyes was appointed for his second spell in charge. He has led them into European competition for two successive seasons, with the Hammers this year featuring in the Europa Conference League.
But while they are flying in that competition after two wins from two games, on the domestic front it is a miserable story. According to The Telegraph, their poor start has seen Moyes come 'under pressure' and he now faces a fight to save his job.
Though there is not yet any panic among club chiefs, the dreadful start to the new campaign has become a concern. It is thought that Moyes now needs to inspire a 'fast upturn' in results, with the Wolves game set to be 'vital'.
The Midlands side are only two points ahead of the Hammers and their visit to the London Stadium marks the start of a run of games that could be crucial to Moyes extending his stay in the capital.
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Fulham, Southampton, Liverpool and Bournemouth will all face West Ham in the coming five league games. If the Hammers are not able to capitalise on that favourable run it is expected Moyes will then face 'difficult questions'.
Piling the pressure onto the poor results is the fact that West Ham were the third highest-spenders in the Premier League in the summer window. It was expected that that expenditure would help Moyes to steer another challenge for Europe.
The Hammers broke their transfer record to sign Lucas Paqueta for £51million and also splurged £30m on Gianluca Scamacca. But there is a growing sense of frustration that the latter has started just one top-flight game so far, despite having already scored three times in Europe.
Moyes' current contract still has another two years left to run, having impressed during his first three campaigns back at West Ham. But following the defeat to Everton just before the international break, the Scot rounded on his players.
“Not very good. We picked up a wee bit after they scored but prior to that we had not been very good. The first half was a poor game all-round with the amount of times both teams turned the ball over. But we didn’t get the result,” he said.
“Today we found out little bits, but it was mainly about the players I already know about. They were the ones, in the main, who have let me down at different times with poor play overall.
"The players who have played last year are down on their level. We’ve shown signs that we were getting back to it (form) but I didn’t think we did today. We have to keep going and keep putting the work in.
"The players have responded well in the last two or three years and there is no reason they cannot reach those heights again. If you’re not scoring lots of goals you have to make sure you are a really good defensive team. We have got a good enough team but we need to start showing it, that’s for sure.”
