West Ham Set to Bring New Manager Bounce to Hill Dickinson Stadium...

Everton hosts West Ham in an interesting affair at Hill Dickinson’s stadium, the first Premier League game under the lights. An extremely unpredictable occasion, as the Hammers have recently appointed Nuno Espirito Santos as the new first-team manager.

Graham Potter is the man who has been replaced. Potter joined West Ham back in January 2025 and has, no doubt, had a very short, disappointing reign. Since the 50-year-old’s arrival, Potter has gathered a 26% win ratio, including some very underwhelming performances such as a 3-0 defeat earlier on in the season to newly promoted Sunderland, a hefty 5-1 defeat at home to Chelsea and the recent elimination from the Carabao Cup following a quick-fire double late on from Wolves to win 3-2.

During West Ham’s hunt for a new manager back in January, when Julen Lopetegui was let go, there was a race for Potter’s signature between the Toffees and West Ham.

There were 2 names at that time: David Moyes and Graham Potter, with it being likely that one team would end up with Potter and the other with Moyes. Over a few days and back and forth, it would then become confirmed that Potter would choose the London side, eventually leading to the Toffees appointing Moyes only a day later, on 11th January 2025.

Now, it is clear to see The Friedkin Group picked the perfect man. Overlooking the recent occurrences within West Ham, including Jarrad Bowen’s unhealthy situation with the travelling away supporters following the club’s EFL Cup defeat to Wolves in August, as well as the recurring memes circulating online, where people would swap Potter’s face onto historical figures remembered for the wrong reasons. This was brought up in an interview with Potter during the lead-up to the game against the Toffees. The majority of the face swaps circulated were humourous, with Potter stating that “it made my 15-year-old son laugh a lot!”

Now, it is a new chapter for the Hammers, with new manager Nuno Espirito Santos joining the side. The question of if West Ham can stay away from the possibility of relegation this season is on a lot of people’s minds currently. The Portuguese manager has spent time in England before, representing Wolves between May 2017 and May 2021, achieving a Championship title, therefore promotion to the Premier League, and bringing European football to the Molineux in the 2019-20 campaign.

More recently, Nuno was first-team manager at Spurs, only a brief reign, as the 51-year-old was brought in during June 2021 and was sacked in November 2021. Nuno has also managed Al-Ittihad in Saudi Arabia for a year before returning to the Premier League for his most recent job, which was at Nottingham Forest, where a falling out with Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis left the manager out of a job.

The game could for sure go either way, as the Toffees’ poor performance in the week may set a lacklustre tone for the fixture tonight. On 23rd September, Wolves hosted the Blues at the Molineux Stadium in the third round of the Carabao Cup. Although there was a lack of quality for both teams, Wolves won the game 2-0 with goals coming in the 29th and 87th minutes through Marshall Munetsi and Tolu Arokodare, which ultimately sent the Toffees home, with Wolves' name in the hat for the next round, where they will face Chelsea at home.

In his pre-match press conference, David Moyes revealed that both Merlin Röhl and Jarrad Branthwaite remain unavailable for the game. When asked regarding Branthwaite’s current rehabilitation programme in terms of the possibility of the English defender returning to full first-team training, the Scotsman stated, “Not at the moment. We're expecting him back shortly but not yet."

Since the swift appointment of Nuno, there has been no official confirmation of team news. However, Graham Potter took charge of the press conference prior to his departure, explaining that Tomas Soucek, who Everton enquired about in the summer, will miss the game due to being sent off earlier in the month against Spurs. As well, Aaron Wan-Bissaka is currently suffering with a stomach issue and will be sidelined.

Nuno, however, had the first interview as West Ham manager on Sunday, explaining his role and the opportunity handed to him, explaining that, “first of all, what is important is that now we know each other, mainly us, the squad, the players. This is what is more important now. We are here working. We started yesterday (Saturday), realising that this is a big, big club. There are expectations, but before all the expectations, all the achievements that we desire, that we want to do, we must create a platform of knowledge, of coming closer to the fans, the team and the fans. And from there we can start building.”

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Thank you for reading my pre-match article!