By Conor Hogan

West Ham are now seven points from safety following Tuesday night’s defeat to Nottingham Forest.

Fourteen points from 21 games is a catastrophic return, and after consecutive defeats to relegation rivals Wolves and Forest, relegation to the Championship is no longer a fear — it is a very real probability.

After Saturday’s humiliation at Molineux, Tuesday’s clash at London Stadium was a must-win. For a brief moment, it looked as though the Hammers had finally seized it. Crysencio Summerville’s strike to make it 2-0 sparked belief inside the ground — belief that has been painfully rare this season. Then VAR intervened, the goal was ruled out for offside, and the rest unfolded exactly as West Ham fans have come to expect.

Much has been made of the officiating, and while the referee and VAR decisions undoubtedly favoured Forest, the uncomfortable truth remains: West Ham were simply not good enough. Not on the night, and not for a long time.

This position should not surprise anyone.

West Ham have been mismanaged at almost every level since the UEFA Conference League triumph of 2023. What should have been a platform for stability and progression instead marked the beginning of a rapid decline.

The Hammers are no longer “too good to go down”. There are no reliable basket-case clubs propping up the league anymore — no Norwich, Leicester, Luton or Ipswich to hide behind. West Ham are very much among the worst sides in the division.

The squad itself is unbalanced and incoherent. There are flashes of quality, moments of promise, but no identity, no cohesion and no belief. Most concerning of all, this group looks mentally shot.

It’s not that the players don’t care — you can see the frustration. It’s that they no longer believe they will get over the line. Every setback feels terminal. Every decision against them feels like confirmation of the inevitable.

What makes it even more maddening is that survival is still mathematically possible. Two wins and a draw could change everything, especially with Nottingham Forest potentially distracted by European commitments. But right now, it’s impossible to see where even one win comes from.

I haven’t felt this hopeless about West Ham’s Premier League survival since the 2019/20 season — when it took a global pandemic and Michail Antonio briefly transforming into prime Ronaldo Nazário to keep us up.

It isn’t over. But it feels like it is.

West Ham can still survive this season. The reality, however, is that they don’t deserve to — and deep down, everyone knows exactly who is to blame.