West Ham United slump to worst start to a season in 52 years; suffer 2-1 defeat away at Leeds United in Premier League

On Saturday, October 25, West Ham United suffered yet another defeat in the Premier League, losing 2-1 to Leeds United at Elland Road, to find themselves second from bottom in the standings. With their seventh loss in the first nine matches of a new season, it has turned out to be the worst start to any league campaign in 52 years for West Ham United as their new manager Nuno Espirito Santo found himself on the wrong side of the result for the third time in a row since joining them earlier this month.

In their latest outing against Leeds United away from home, West Ham United couldn’t have gotten off to any worse start as they conceded the first goal in the third minute to Brenden Aaronson. Just 12 minutes later, Joe Rondon made it 2-0 in favour

of the hosts at Elland Road before they kept West Ham United largely at bay until the 90th minute when Mateus Fernandes scored his first goal for the club, which ultimately went in vain.

It is important to note that the only win in the ongoing Premier League 2025-26 season for West Ham United came against Nottingham Forest, who were ironically managed at the time by their current boss Nuno Espirito Santo with a 3-0 scoreline away at City Ground. In the latest Premier League standings, the Hammers are just ahead of Wolves, who have no wins to their name in eight matches in the campaign while Nottingham Forest are a place above them with one win in eight matches.

West Ham United were last relegated from the Premier League in 2011-12 season

With such a poor record at the start of the season, the fans have started to fear a potential relegation to the Championship for the first-time since the 2011-12 season. In his post-match comments, Nuno Espirito Santo had no qualms in admitting the issues plaguing the club and said, as per BBC Sport, “There are many problems in our club unfortunately. It is not up to us to hide ourselves behind the problems. Everyone has to be alive and to do much more and be in the right position.”

“We were not dealing with our defensive situations and I felt like we needed a striker to hold the ball, so maybe that's not the greatest from me. These kind of mistakes are unacceptable in the Premier League,” he added.