Nuno says pressure is always on West Ham ahead of headline clash with Wolves

Syndicated reporting provided by Stats Perform and reviewed by the SoccerNews editorial team.

Nuno Espirito Santo acknowledges there will always be huge pressure on West Ham to perform in the Championship, as they remain winless ahead of Tuesday’s clash with Wolves.

The Hammers were viewed as major favourites to win immediate promotion back to the Premier League following their relegation last season, but they have made a stuttering start to 2026-27.

Having squandered a 2-0 lead to draw 2-2 with Burnley on the opening matchday, West Ham have since suffered a 2-1 home defeat against Charlton Athletic and drawn 1-1 at Watford.

In their most recent outing at Vicarage Road, West Ham only managed one shot on target and lost the expected goals (xG) battle by 0.89 to 1.6, leading to fierce criticism from some sections of their fanbase.

Tuesday’s opponents, by contrast, have adapted quickly upon their second-tier return, taking seven points from three games to sit second in the early-season table.

And Nuno – who led a Wolves side containing Ruben Neves and Diogo Jota to a dominant Championship title triumph in 2017-18 – knows his players need to get used to playing under pressure.

“Even the players that join us don’t realise how huge the club is, so the pressure is always here, and we have to deal with that,” Nuno told reporters on Monday.

“How do you deal with that? We believe, we trust, we commit and more than anything, we support each other to try and change things. This is our job.

“We are a big club, we are a big club, we are favourites to go up, we have played three games, we have two points. Who’s happy?

“But me, I believe, I trust my boys, I work very hard with them, we are building a team and things will change, I’m positive.”

A look at how the #SkyBetChampionship table shapes up after three games! 

— Sky Bet Championship (@SkyBetChamp) August 29, 2026

Asked if he needed to adapt his methods to second-tier opponents, Nuno said: “It’s not about adapting to the competition. It’s about trying to be yourself inside the competition. This is the path that we are trying to create.”

West Ham completed the signing of Norway Under-21 international winger Edvin Austbo from Viking FK on Monday, though a deal for Wolves’ Ladislav Krejci is now reportedly unlikely after the Czechia international was linked with a move.

Wolves’ 4-1 rout of Stoke City on Saturday came on the back of a 2-2 draw with Blackburn Rovers and a 3-1 win at Preston North End, and only Southampton can match their nine goals so far this season.

Winger Mateus Mane is yet to find the back of the net this campaign, though he did help to create the second of Rodrigo Gomes’ two goals against Stoke with a bustling run between two defenders and into the penalty area.

Mane ranks second in the Championship for shots following a carry (five) and joint-fourth for chances created following a carry (four, alongside team-mate Fer Lopez), but he says head coach Cesar Peixoto wants to see even more attacking endeavour.   

“We won on Saturday, but on Sunday we started working for Tuesday’s game against West Ham. The fans will go down and support us and hopefully we’ll get another win,” Mane told the club’s website.

“I feel like we’ve started off very well this season. In the first game we drew, but we wanted to win at home, so on Saturday we showed the fans what we can do when we play at Molineux, and I hope they enjoyed it.

“The manager wants us to attack and we’ve got nine goals, but he wants more than that. We’re working in training and in games, we try our best to score goals.”

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