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It’s gone from bad to worse for Nuno’s side, despite the Hammers’ best efforts to claw themselves out of the relegation zone, all hope may be lost for the East London side after the Premier League announce an imminent four-point deduction due to PSR breach.

The Hammers announced their financial troubles just over a month ago, when it officially became visible to the public eye that West Ham were in debt by £104,000,000. After this announcement, it triggered an investigation from the Premier League, where, after an internal dig, they concluded some of the financial aspects didn’t add up, and they were, in fact, tampered with.

This, of course, could’ve been avoided had the shareholders put in their own money into the club - this point being crucial given that the Premier League committee’s investigation also revealed that David Sullivan has only put in £1,000,000 in the last year to West Ham.

Premier League clubs are allowed to have losses of up to £105,000,000, which is what initially triggered the investigation, as the committee were intrigued as to how close the Hammers were flying to the sun.

Evidently, too close for comfort.

The points deduction will see the Hammers remain 18th, but only on 25 points compared to the 29 we had.

This relegation battle already was intense for the Hammers as it was, but the spanner thrown in the works certainly won’t be an easy aspect to take on the chin for Nuno’s side.

West Ham have had to deal with numerous troubles since moving to the London Stadium in 2016, but one significant issue, one that is fixable, that has persistently been a bother has been seeing away fans in the home end.

Particularly, last season, there were numerous occasions where away fans were sat in the home end. I cannot fathom how many people were kicked out of the Bobby Moore upper stand, half of the buggers wouldn’t have known who he was!

Perhaps Manchester United at home this season would’ve been the breaking point for the club, as it was yet another fixture that was flooded with away fans, and on that particular night, the stewards certainly had their work cut out for them.

The Hammers only have a few remaining home games this season, one of which is against Arsenal.

An Arsenal fan recently attempted to buy a home end ticket and received an email, which indicates that action has actually been taken towards making a change. The said individual was informed that, as it was their first time purchasing tickets for West Ham, they would have to be validated - otherwise, the ticket wouldn’t be able to be used.

To have the ticket validated, you would have to provide “photographic evidence that you are a West Ham United supporter which can be from a party, event or fixture wearing West Ham merchandise or West Ham releated evidence (Please note any merchandise will need to be purchased PRIOR TO January 2026”

You will also have to provide ID.

This is an intelligent move.

To add on to that, it is also mentioned that this evidence needs to be sent before Tuesday, 31st March 2026, 1:00 pm - presumably around the five-day mark from receiving the initial email. A typical true West Ham fan would easily be able to attach a photo, followed by a photo of ID, and no worry is to follow, for Away supporters… that’s a struggle.

This move should make it further difficult for away fans to enter the home end - it may cause some trouble, and undoubably their will be a few that wriggle their way through the identification system, but this certainly should stop a large bunch in theory.

Let’s wait and see how this system is when in action.

Nuno Espirito Santo’s side faced a damning 2-0 defeat to Aston Villa as his squad appeared nothing but tired heading into the final game before the international break, and for once, it seems to have come promptly for West Ham.

Without beating around the bush too much, it’s a miserable defeat and one with little to no positives. Nuno’s side struggled from the off, seeing as Jean-Clair Todibo’s calf injury, which he had sustained in the warm-up, saw Freddie Potts introduced. Whilst Freddie wasn’t too bad himself, it annihilated the gameplan the Hammers had set out to achieve, and from Villa scoring the first, it all avelanched down.

Chances were minimal, mindsets were down. Nuno and Paco’s side weren’t able to formulate any chances of serious intent, unless you want to narrow it down to Pablo’s halfhearted attempt in the box.

In reality, West Ham are lucky it wasn’t more - Konstantinos Mavropanos saved at least three goal scoring oportunities, closing the game out at two-nil, but it very easily could’ve been four or five had he not been involved.

Whilst Mavro might’ve been the positive of the match, the same cannot be said for unbothered Bissaka, who had a woeful performance this afternoon, strolling around and almost refusing to run and at one point chased Morgan Rogers for his shirt, a performance of comedy, not courage.

The best positives that can be found are the factors surrounding the game rather than the 90 minutes themselves.

The timing of the international break will see Crysencio Summerville as well as Jean-Clair Todibo returning to the first team, allowing Nuno to go back to the 4-4-2 formation, which has had the highest win percentage for the Hammers this season.

Additionally, the Hammers return from the international break with two home matches, one against Leeds United in the cup on Easter Sunday, which could be an opportunity to gain a world of confidence, whilst on Friday evening we take on Wolves, which could ultimately decide our season, and three points at the Bowl could help bolster our survival chances significantly.

Nottingham Forest, unfortunately, annihilated the Spuds in a 3-0 victory, meaning West Ham remain 18th on 28 points, whilst Spurs are sat in 17th on 29.

It’s very easy to be all doom and gloom after this afternoon’s result - but the fact of the matter is that West Ham have only lost three in the last ten, have closed down a ten-point gap to one and finally have now recovered from all injuries, including our star man Summerville.

Bubbles were miserably burst today, but our dreams were not all crushed. Seven games to go.