Sam Allardyce knows from experience the challenges awaiting Nuno Espirito Santo at West Ham United, following his appointment at a club stuck in the Premier League relegation zone.

He might have arrived to plenty of goodwill – bringing Freddie Potts back was a ‘brilliant’ move, for instance, and an easy way to get the fans onside right from the off – but that support will only last for as long as the results remain acceptable.

On his final outing as West Ham United’s head coach, Graham Potter trudged off to a chorus of boos from an irate London Stadium crowd.

At least most of them stayed until the final whistle during that 2-1 defeat by Crystal Palace. The same could not be said in 3-0 and 5-1 drubbings by Tottenham and Chelsea. The result a foregone conclusion as early as the hour mark, and fans streaming out in their thousands.

Nuno Espirito Santo will have to wait until October 20th to take charge at the London Stadium for the first time. His Hammers side travel to Arsenal in their final outing before the international break.

And the best piece of advice Sam Allardyce can give his latest West Ham predecessor is that, while creditable points on the road like at Everton on Monday night are a nice bonus, home wins will be the foundation from which he must build upon.

Sam Allardyce urges Nuno to improve West Ham United’s London Stadium record

All four of West Ham’s points so far in 2025/26 have come on the road. One picked up at Everton, and the other three secured via a stunning win at Nuno’s Nottingham Forest at the end of August.

In fact, since the start of last season, the Hammers have triumphed in only five of 22 home matches in the Premier League. A miserable 22 per cent win rate on London Stadium soil.

Potter won only twice in front of the club’s own supporters. Meaning that any hope of creating a bond between himself and the fans never really got off the ground.

“It had to be done,” Allardyce, who coached West Ham from 2011 to 2014, says in response to Potter’s sacking last weekend.

“Listen, I think [for] coaches at the moment, there is a position that the club feels you should be in, and it doesn’t take long before everybody starts to question it [if you are performing below expectations].

“We are only six games in, and their performances and results have been so poor. Most importantly, at home.

“If you are going to survive, survive by winning at home. It’s lovely winning away, and it’s very difficult to win away, but you are sending your home fans home happy.

“It’s not an easy place for your players to play, or your manager, when it’s not going well at West Ham. As much as they like to get behind the team, they will show their disapproval as well.”

Max Kilman says Nuno has ‘made a big impact’ at the Hammers

Across spells at Wolves, Tottenham Hotspur and Nottingham Forest, Nuno can boast an impressive 54 per cent win rate in home games. Comfortably more than double West Ham’s 22 per cent home win rate over the last 15 months of Premier League action.

Reunited after their time together at Molineux, defender Max Kilman insists that Nuno is just getting started at West Ham. Monday’s hard-fought draw at Everton was an immediate improvement on what came before under Potter, but still well short of the standards Nuno sets.

“Nuno has made a big impact already, but we know we’ve still got a lot to work on,” Kilman told the club’s official website.

“He said that straight after the game [that we must improve], but that he’s got confidence in us. And I think we’re only going to grow as a team.

“We know we need to cut out those little moments that are costing us winning games at the moment. We know we need to find that extra five or ten per cent to win those duels and second phases, and we’ll continue to do that this week.

“Hopefully we can build on tonight, because I think we did well to stick together in a tough stadium. We didn’t have long to prepare with the new manager, and to get a result anywhere in the Premier League is massive.

“We’ve got a few days now before Arsenal [away on Saturday], which we know is going to be a tough game. So, we’ll try to continue to gel and get ready to give our best.”