The scoreline arguably wasn’t even the worst thing about West Ham United’s 3-0 shellacking at the hands of Premier League basement boys Wolverhampton Wanderers.

A 3-0 scoreline which arguably flattered the visitors more than it did a home side celebrating their first top-flight win since beating Leicester City – now a Championship team, of course – all the way back in April of last year.

West Ham did not manage a single shot on target. As for Wolves, if it wasn’t for a couple of Alphonse Areola interventions, particularly one supreme first-half save, what is already one of the club’s worst defeats in modern history could have descended into parodying, performance-art levels of bad.

Humiliation at Molineux…

Where does this rank among West Ham’s WORST ever Premier League defeats?

West Ham United could have climbed out of the relegation zone with successive wins over Wolves and Nottingham Forest.

As it is, Nuno Espirito Santo is facing up to the prospect of being cut even further adrift before the FA Cup third round even gets underway.

Nuno Espirito Santo reflects on West Ham United’s humiliating defeat at Wolves

Speaking to the club’s official website and BBC Sport, Nuno was in no mood to sugar-coat things. Though even Willy Wonka himself might have found it impossible to do just that. West Ham were simply ‘pathetic’.

There would be no needle-in-a-haystack-grasps at positivity from the manager. A stark and rather welcome change from the Graham Potter era.

Only quiet fury and prolonged disappointment.

Nuno admits that an absence of ‘effort’ might have been the most ‘concerning’ thing of all on an afternoon where Wolves dominated the duels, won the loose balls, and largely appeared as if they were playing with at least two extra men.

“It was a poor performance. The first half was very bad, very bad. The way we started the game, losing balls in tough situations, making mistakes…,” Nuno says.

“We should apologise to our fans, those who traveled and those who are at home. Nobody expected us, especially ourselves, to perform so poorly. In previous games, we have been able to react and bounce back from our mistakes, but today, no.

“There were consequence of our mistakes over and over again It is not about solutions and options; it is about actions.

“It has been very bad. Very bad, very bad. It was the worst performance, the worst first-half that we have had. [Now] we must try to recover the players, physically and mentally. We have to talk. We have to realise the situation we are in. We need much more from everybody. Much more, much more.

“We need points. We need points to get out of this situation, and we need to play better to achieve those points.”

Nuno claims ‘nobody expected’ the Hammers to be this bad

Lose to Nottingham Forest on Tuesday, and West Ham will be seven points adrift of safety by mid-January.

“[The performance] was something that nobody expected, but it is something that must make us think and reflect on the situation that we are in,” Nuno adds, albeit there are certainly some in the Hammers fanbase who would have seen this coming.

If you could replace Nuno with one out-of-work manager, who are you picking?

And why?

“Individually and as a team, we need to ensure they are not making the mistakes they are making. We need to see effort, we need to see a reaction, we need to see character, we need to see many things.

“There is a lot of football to be played, but it is about realising that we cannot repeat these kinds of performances. We must do much better. It was not good enough. It was poor, and there was a lack of effort that really is concerning.

“We have problems in many positions that require addressing. Those who come in are not going to solve the situation on their own. It is us, here, who must do much, much better, because it was very bad today.”

Konstantinos Mavropanos demands a response against Nottingham Forest

Konstantinos Mavropanos started alongside Max Kilman after West Ham lost Jean-Clair Todibo to injury against Brighton in midweek.

As long as these two are starting together at the heart of their backline, trying to achieve survival feels like attempting to fix a leak in the ceiling when the floor is giving way.

“We want to apologise to our fans,” Mavropanos told Sky Sports. “They don’t deserve this, it was unacceptable especially the first half. We have to work hard.. We have to realise the situation we are in and work harder. There is only one way to solve this situation and it is up to us.

“We understand their frustrations. When we concede three goals like this it is normal they react like this. That is why I am saying we have to apologise.

“We have to show what we really can do because I don’t think this team deserves to be in this situation. It is up to us. I want to apologise to the fans because week in week out they support us and this is unacceptable.

“We just have to work harder and we have to realise the situation that we’re in. There is only one way to solve the situation and it’s up to us. We understand the fans frustrations as well, when we concede two goals like this, it’s normal they react like this.

“The first half was not on the level we want. In the second half we tried to show some character but we didn’t really create anything. it is what it is now.

“For [Nuno], so far it’s difficult,” Mavropanos adds. “I don’t think this team deserve to be in this situation really, I’ll say it again the only people who can change the situation is us. We have to bounce back as quick as possible, the next game is in three days, we’re disappointed to come out and lose