West Ham United’s miserable start to the Premier League season continued as they slumped to a 5-1 defeat to Chelsea.
Despite a bright start via a stunning strike from distance courtesy of Lucas Paqueta, five unanswered goals from Joao Pedro, Pedro Neto, Enzo Fernandez, Moises Caicedo and Trevoh Chalobah got the Blues officially up and running this season.
What made Chelsea’s victory all the more impressive was the fact they did it without Cole Palmer, who was withdrawn minutes before kick-off in place of teenage talent Estevao.
Pressure had already been ramping up on manager Graham Potter as they suffered a humiliating opening day 3-0 defeat to newly-promoted Sunderland.
With the defeat to Chelsea, West Ham have now won just two of their ten home Premier League matches under Potter as well as three draws and four losses, picking up nine points in total.
What unwanted records has Graham Potter overseen?
No Hammers manager had ever won fewer than ten points in their first ten home games in the competition previously.
Not only that, but the Hammers under Potter have now conceded the most goals in the opening two games in Premier League history with eight.
Before Friday night, both Alan Curbishley and Avram Grant had registered ten points in the same time frame, but their paltry tallies have now been unceremoniously beaten.
Potter did win his first home match at the London Stadium, but the 3-2 triumph over Fulham proved a rare moment to celebrate.
It was swiftly followed by losses to Crystal Palace and Brentford, although a 2-0 win over soon-to-be relegated Leicester did provide some respite.
A loss to Newcastle and draws with Bournemouth, Southampton, and Tottenham at home provided further food for thought, before another defeat, this time to Nottingham Forest.
As well as that unwanted West Ham history, their opening defeat mean they join Southampton as the Premier League team who have lost their first two games of a season the most.
Both clubs have now done it on nine different occasions.
After the defeat to Sunderland, West Ham co-chair was keen to back Potter and his methods.
She told the Sunday Edition: “I spent a lot of time with the manager and the squad in America on the preseason tour. The spirit amongst them is fantastic. I know that they’ll be more disappointed, that they’ll be the most disappointed people this morning.
“I know we’ll see a reaction and I know they want to turn it around and they’ll want to turn it around quickly.
“Graham is a forward thinking manager. He’s sort of calm under pressure. He’s very detailed in his approach. He’s a great man, manager of players.
“He builds a special relationship with players and they understand where he’s coming from.
What did Graham Potter say after the defeat?
Speaking to talkSPORT, Potter said: “Disappointed of course, bitterly disappointed.
“Tough evening, really tough evening, not much more to say than that.
“Got off to a good start, scored a good goal, recovered the ball well, had some good attacks, but then I think the first goal is a cheap goal and that probably sets the tone for the evening from our perspective.
“We’re playing against a top team, I think, with some talent, but at the same time the goals we’ve conceded are too cheap.”
Addressing the fans, Potter remarked: “It’s a tough evening for us and I feel for the supporters.
“They want more and we let them down today. We let them down because the goals we gave away were too cheap.
“So there’s nothing I can say that’s going to make that feeling any better at the moment.
“They’ll be hurting and it’s painful, so it’s just a case of we need to do better and we need to work harder.”
“He has a modern mindset and all of those things mean it does take some time to put a team together, to get the team playing the way that you want.
“West Ham is not a club that panics about its managers. We tend to stick with them, tend to support people, stick with them and see it through.
“I really hope he does well. He’s a pleasure to work with. He’s incredibly professional. I know the players respect him.
“I know his relationship with the players is good. I know he’ll be sitting down with them today to have a long, hard think about what went wrong yesterday, expecting a reaction and expecting to put it right.”
However, former Premier League striker Tony Cascarino has been less than convinced about Potter’s reign at the London Stadium.
He told the Weekend Sports Breakfast: “If you ever want to go to a football match and have a little bit of a doze, especially last season and coming in this year, I looked at West Ham because I I’d gone there and worked on two or three games and I found it hard work actually being trying to be positive about what I’m watching.
“Graham’s interviews are not very inspiring to me because he questions the players and maybe what they should have done or shouldn’t have done. But you set your team up. You set them up to try and be more aggressive. And they were overrun in every area.
“Only Bowen stood out yesterday for West Ham. Only he looked like he had anything about him. And Graham has to instill that into his team.
“Look at Arne Slot or look at Sir Alex Ferguson, they all drove their teams. You look at the passion that managers have. I just don’t see that with Graham Potter.”
He later added: “You know, I I think sometimes you have to go hardball.
“I have never been a manager and I have always liked to think I am really considered in the way I choose my words with managers sometimes.
“But I just feel like Graham himself has got quite a lot wrong since he’s been at West Ham.”