West Ham’s woes worsen as Fulham climb into top half of table

West Ham United (0) 0 v Fulham (0) 1

Raúl Jiménez 85

By Kaz Mochlinski at the London Stadium

Premier League

Matchweek 18

This was the one that brought them to tears. Ollie Scarles could not stop himself crying very visibly on the pitch at the final whistle, after his mistake led to the winning goal in the closing stages, but most of West Ham United’s faithful must have felt very similarly.

The Hammers’ growing gloom got ever greater on a grey winter afternoon as they were condemned to end the year in the Premier League’s relegation zone, having been beaten by a resurgent Fulham, despite the visitors’ trio of players absent at Afcon.

It was West Ham’s third defeat in a row, and conversely Fulham’s third consecutive victory in the league. Even more miserably, the Hammers have lost three successive matches at home, while the Cottagers have had a sequence of three away wins.

A Raúl Jiménez header five minutes from full-time was decisive, meaning that, in the space of six days, on either side of Christmas, he had scored the only goal of the game in two 1-0 successes, to follow his winning penalty against Nottingham Forest.

Fulham’s fabulous festive week propelled them up the Premier League into the top half of the table approaching the midway point of the season, having won six out of nine league matches since the start of November.

Surprisingly for some, only the three leading teams - Arsenal, Manchester City and Aston Villa - have had better results recently than Fulham. In contrast, just the bottom two sides - Burnley and Wolverhampton Wanderers - have been worse than West Ham.

The Hammers last had a victory on 8th November and they are now winless in seven games. In such circumstances, a London derby was not a pleasant prospect, as they have lost six from six during this campaign.

Five of those defeats by other capital clubs have come at the London Stadium, among a total of seven times that they have been beaten on their own pitch already. In the whole of 2025, they have had 11 reverses at home in league encounters.

That equals an unwanted club record for home losses in a calendar year, previously registered in 1967, all of 58 years ago, when there may have been something of a hangover from West Ham winning the World Cup at Wembley in 1966.

The club of England’s captain and both goalscorers in the final is far less happy at the moment, and once again there were protests around the ground against the ownership and executives perceived by fans as responsible for the Hammers’ present plight.

But, perhaps unexpectedly, these were relatively isolated, with the atmosphere largely being positive and supportive of a side which performed competently and creditably, if unspectacularly, until the overwhelming disappointment of the final few minutes.

In a lively contest, full of enthusiastic endeavour from both teams, West Ham always looked to be a threat going forward, especially when moving the ball at pace for Jarrod Bowen’s clever runs in behind the opposition defence.

The West Ham head coach, Nuno Espírito Santo, seems to have a preference for the foursome of Bowen, Lucas Paquetá, Crysencio Summerville and Mateus Fernandes in attack, although he has rotated their positions in different matches.

Bernd Leno was admirably alert and immovable, plus a couple of close offside decisions also stopped promising moves from the home side. But West Ham desperately miss a centre-forward to take some of the scoring burden off Bowen.

Niclas Füllkrug is being loaned out to A.C. Milan for the rest of the season, an embarassing indictment of a terrible transfer policy. The 32-year-old last scored on 5th April, not starting a game since 4th October, and not playing at all in December.

Callum Wilson was brought on in the second half, having still not managed a full 90 minutes for the Hammers, and, at the age of 33, following several serious injuries, there clearly must be questions about his physical fitness.

He got into good spaces against Fulham, but he looked to be lacking any sharpness in front of goal when the chances came, and he has now not scored in his last six appearances. Unequivocally, Nuno needs a new striker in the January transfer window.

With Fulham’s finishing being likewise less clinical than they would want ideally, a goalless draw seemed to be increasingly inevitable. But West Ham’s defence currently also always at any moment has the high likelihood of an error to gift a goal.

When it came, the winner was fittingly created by Harry Wilson, turning out despite a painful bang on the knee in his previous match, and denied early on by Alphonse Areola with a fantastic flying finger-tip save of a well-struck rising shot.

In fine form and full of confidence, Fulham’s Wilson got down the right for a cross which Fernandes headed out, only for Scarles to miss the ball completely with his clearance attempt, allowing the visitors’ winger unchallenged to send it in again.

His second crossing effort looped over the mistimed jump of Jean-Clair Todibo, leaving Jiménez free on the edge of the six yard box to head back across the goalkeeper. The 34-year-old has now remarkably scored seven times against his favourite opposition.

Importantly, it was Jiménez’s third winning goal in 1-0 successes by Fulham in the last five weeks during their good recent run. He beat Sunderland with an 84th minute strike and improved on that this time, causing 85th minute heartbreak for the Hammers.

In all there have been four in four months, as additionally he did it to overcome Cambridge United in the Carabao Cup. But this was the first one away from Craven Cottage - at a club where Fulham had won only once in 14 Premier League games.

Scarles should not be solely blamed for it. He was still a teenager until just a couple of weeks ago, and this was only his second match of the season at the London Stadium. Plus he is part of a promising group of younger players emerging for West Ham.

A pair of 22-year-olds in Freddie Potts and Soungoutou Magassa anchored the midfield in a double pivot. Plus the potentially exciting 21-year-old George Earthy made his first appearance this season as a late substitute.

Back from ankle and hamstring injuries after a loan spell at Bristol City, Earthy, along with Scarles, Potts and Magassa, will represent West Ham’s future. The present is a five-point deficit to 17th position and an escape from the relegation places.

Crucially, they face the team immediately above them, Nottingham Forest, on 6th January, a reminder also of what continues to be the Hammers’ only clean sheet of the campaign, in the reverse fixture back in August - when Nuno was Forest’s head coach.

The extent of his current challenge is underlined by Fulham’s points total of 26 being exactly twice that of the Hammers. 13 points is West Ham’s joint lowest ever in the Premier League at this stage.

The previous season when they had so few points after 18 games was in 2010-11 - and that time they ended up finishing at the bottom of the table. It does not augur well for the East London club’s foreseeable future.

West Ham United: (4-2-3-1) Areola - Walker-Peters, Todibo, Kilman, Scarles - Magassa (Souček 83), Potts - Paquetá (Earthy 83), Fernandes, Summerville (Callum Wilson 55) - Bowen

Fulham: (4-2-3-1) Leno - Tete (Castagne 82), Andersen, Cuenca, Robinson - Lukić (Diop 88), Berge - Harry Wilson, Smith Rowe (Cairney 82), Kevin (King 69) - Raúl Jiménez

Attendance: 62,464