Nuno Espirito Santo: West Ham coach is under increasing pressure after the defeat against bottom of the standings, Wolverhampton

Next up for them is a relegation six-shot at home to Sean Dyche’s Forest, who sit just above them at the table in a game that could determine Nuno’s future.

Victory over the club that sacked him last September after 21 months in charge may give him more time, but defeat will deepen the crisis and exacerbate questions about his position.

Nuno added on the BBC’s “Match of the Day” program: “No one expected us to play this badly.”

“Now is the time for us to think and reflect, are we doing everything we can? Do we realize the situation we are in? How do we get out of this situation and improve. There are things that need to be addressed.”

“The Jungle game will be tough, but now it’s about reacting, transforming and improving.”

The last team to avoid relegation after earning fewer than 14 points for West Ham at this stage of the season is Eddie Howe’s Newcastle, who have only 12 points after 20 games in 2021-22.

But they spent £85m in January to bolster their squad with Bruno Guimaraes, Chris Wood, Dan Byrne, Kieran Trippier and Matt Targett, and finished 11th on 49 points after winning 12 of their remaining 18 matches.

Although West Ham are committed to supporting the manager in the January window, Nuno is unlikely to receive the kind of financial support Howe has received.

They have already signed Brazilian striker Pablo Felipe from Portuguese club Gil Vicente for a fee of €25m (£21.8m), and he was an unused substitute at Molineux, but they have sent German striker Niklas Wolkrug to Milan on loan.

“It’s a complicated situation,” Nuno added when asked about the club’s prospects in the transfer market.

“The club is working on this situation [of transfers]. We have problems with the lineup and options but that is no excuse for what we did in the first half – the mistakes we made, the lack of effort… it was very bad.

“It was about mistakes we made over and over again, and it was really bad.”