Fresh from a 2-0 defeat at home to Brentford on Monday night, they go straight into battle at Elland Road against Leeds United on Friday night.
Nothing less than three points required for West Ham
Stuck as they are, second from bottom of the English top-flight and with only one win to their name in their opening eight matches, it's abundantly clear that nothing less than three points will do for the Hammers.
The Yorkshire-based outfit are looking to earn a victory that will lift them away from a bottom three that they're perilously close to at present, meaning that there's some certainty to this game being decided by the nervousness of players on the edge, too frightened of making a mistake that's ultimately likely to be the difference here.
With only two goals scored in their last five games, it's blindingly obvious where West Ham's problems lie, and Jarrod Bowen aside, creative attacking players such as Lucas Paqueta and Crysencio Summerville need to roll up their sleeves and add to the goals column.
Though Leeds haven't won their last three games at Elland Road, they have scored in all of them, and were they to do so again, that could represent another problem for their visitors.
West Ham have scored twice in six previous meetings
Visitors who will be leaning on the fact that they've won four of the last six head-to-head meetings, drawing one and losing the other.
Intiguingly, the Hammers have actually scored at least twice in all six of those meetings, including the one in which they were defeated.
To build on that record, ideally, they need to up their shot count this season. 76 so far places them 19th out of the 20 teams in the division in this regard, and just six goals scored in total have them as the 18th worst in that regard.
It won't please Nuno either that the Irons are placed first in one metric: the number of goals conceded (18). Set-pieces still seem to be an Achilles Heel, and that may well be an area which Daniel Farke's side will look to tap into.
Perhaps the Hammers' chief needs to also look at his reasons for non-selection ahead of the game, too, given that James Ward-Prowse has become persona non grata despite providing the most chances created in the team (12).
El Hadji Malick Diouf, kept on the bench on Monday, has the most assists for the club (three), which is only one behind Jack Grealish and former Hammer, Mo Kudus, whose four assists are the most in the Premier League this season.
Callum Wilson, who is one of only three West Ham players to register this season - Bowen and Paqueta are the others - was also kept as a sub against Brentford, which is a decision that made little sense in the cold light of day.
Final 15 minutes could be key
In terms of when goals have been scored or conceded by both sides, the visitors tend to be at their most vulnerable just before and just after half-time, when Leeds are at their most potent.
The final 15 minutes of games this season have been the time when West Ham have scored the most (three) and when Leeds have conceded the joint most (also three), so the latter stages of the game might well provide some drama.
Equally, both sides haven't found the net on four of the eight occasions they've played in 2025/26, so a goalless draw isn't out of the question either.
Should there be goals and Leeds are the first to score, the likelihood of the hosts going on to win the game is high. That's because they have a 100 p win record when scoring first, whilst the Hammers have failed to win when conceding first.
Leeds must take their chances
Leeds will perhaps also be wondering how they didn't win against Burnley last time out. In stark contrast to West Ham's insipid performance against Brentford, the all whites had 19 shots, 42 touches in the Clarets' box and 69 per cent possession.
Across the entirety of the season so far, the Elland Road outfit have actually taken 104 shots in total, the seventh-most in the Premier League, but a conversion rate of just 6.7 per cent is only better than that of Wolves and Nottingham Forest and arguably goes some way to answering the Burnley question.
Dominic Calvert-Lewin's failure in front of goal - he's missed five big chances this season - is also a legitimate reason for Leeds' attacking shortcomings. Although Erling Haaland and Jean-Philippe Mateta have missed more, they've also scored more than Calvert-Lewin's solitary goal in 2025/26.
Both teams are likely to have three players missing for this one, with Konstantinos Mavropanos, George Earthy and Niclas Fullkrug all out for the Hammers and Harry Gray, Noah Okafor and Willy Gnonto set to be missing for Leeds.
Follow the clash live with Flashscore
