Nuno Espirito Santo has every right to be seething at how the Premier League’s latest announcement is set to affect West Ham.

The Portuguese has walked into a nightmare situation at the London Stadium, with the team struggling badly on the pitch, and the fans protesting against the ownership in the stands.

Nuno is already under pressure at West Ham, and needs to oversee a sharp upturn in form in the coming months, or relegation will become a very realistic possibility.

The 51-year-old will need strong financial backing from David Sullivan and Co. in the January transfer window, but he must first navigate this horrific situation that the league have created for him and his team.

West Ham to suffer hugely from Premier League festive schedule

West Ham were supposed to play Fulham at home on Boxing Day this year, but the status of that fixture has been called into question recently amid the debacle surrounding the Premier League’s festive schedule.

It has recently been suggested that there will be just a solitary top-flight game held on Boxing Day, which has historically been a festival of football up and down the country for several generations.

That development has drawn frustration from supporters across the land, and in West Ham’s case, its confirmation has left them with a hugely unwelcome situation over the festive period.

West Ham’s festive fixture list.

Fixtures always pile up for clubs at Christmas time, but Nuno and his men are now left with the daunting proposition of four league games in the space of 11 days, after the Premier League announced the official schedule on Friday.

The boss is already fighting fires to try and hold things together in E20, and he will be fuming that he must now face the prospect of having to drag his low-quality and injury-hit squad through such a relentless run of fixtures.

London Stadium may be a toxic atmosphere by Christmas

West Ham fans are livid with Sullivan and the rest of the hierarchy, and if things do not improve in the coming weeks, it could be a truly toxic environment by the time that run of four games in 11 days comes around.

Three of those clashes are on home turf at the London Stadium, but unless the team begin to show signs of life soon, that will quickly become more of a hindrance than an advantage.

The entire club is divided in E20 at the moment, and Nuno must surely be wondering what he has got himself in for at the end of his first month in charge.

He and his team are facing a backs-to-the-wall situation at the moment, and if they cannot turn things around sooner rather than later, then it could be a truly sorry Christmas time for West Ham.

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