Nottingham Forest piled the misery on beleaguered West Ham United manager Julen Lopetegui.
The former Real Madrid manager was tasked with introducing a more expansive style of play and bringing more excitement to East London, after David Moyes departed the club. Barring their victory over Manchester United one week previously, Lopetegui’s time in charge of the Irons has been rather miserable.
He has only won three of his first 10 Premier League fixtures and was sent crashing out of the League Cup by Liverpool, who hammered them 5-1 at Anfield. A trip to Nuno Espirito Santo’s in form Forest side was difficult enough, but the Hammers created their own problems.
After they were comfortably beaten 3-0 at the City Ground, things looked rather gloomy for the Spaniard.
Forest only needed 27 minutes to open the scoring when Chris Wood found the net to score his eighth goal in ten Premier League matches. The former Newcastle United forward headed in from close range after getting on the end of Alex Moreno’s impressive cross to continue his strong start to the season.
Moments before both sides returned to the dressing room for half-time, Edson Alvarez was sent off for a second bookable offence, leaving Lopetegui’s side with ten men.
Forest dominated the second half and eventually doubled their lead through former Chelsea winger Callum Hudson-Odoi, who found the corner with a wonderful effort from the edge of the box. As the hosts cruised to victory, Forest defender Ola Aina darted forward and found the top corner with a stupendous effort to rub salt in the wounds.
Lopetegui was heavily backed in the transfer window by the East Londoners. They spent more than £150million on Max Kilman, Jean-Clair Todibo, Niclas Fulkrug, Crysencio Summerville, Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Luis Guilherme and Guido Rodriguez.
They also managed to hold onto Brazilian star man Lucas Paqueta and Jarrod Bowen. While they do not appear to be in a relegation battle, many fans would have expected more, considering their spending.
When asked about their start to the season, Lopetegui told DAZN: “There is a lot of energy to manage, knowing that we have faced a difficult start and that it will continue to be like that throughout the season.
“But we transmit positive feelings and we are acquiring the arguments and automatisms that we are looking for. We are also adapting to the players, we are looking for that balance to compete
“The Premier is a very clear competition, and once you know it first hand, you understand why it is the best competition in the world. Everyone can beat anyone else and there is a unique intensity and physical and technical strength.
“The pace has a lot to do with the type of refereeing there is, things are allowed that are not allowed in other leagues.”
