Opta have updated their final predicted Premier League table for the 2025/26 season — and West Ham and Nottingham Forest could make history with Nuno Espirito Santo.
After he was controversially sacked by Nottingham Forest and almost instantly hired by West Ham, the two clubs are now inextricably linked by Nuno Espirito Santo this season.
Many predicted Nottingham Forest would struggle to stay up last season while the Hammers were tipped as Champions League outsiders after spending £155m on nine new players.
How wrong those predictions were.
Nuno came within a whisker of getting Nottingham Forest into the Champions League while West Ham were in a fight to avoid the ignominy of finishing 17th, a wooden spoon that went to Spurs instead.
The job Nuno did at Forest was hailed across football.
Opta update final predicted Premier League table
Especially as the Tricky Trees did it in style, playing some exciting, swashbuckling counter-attacking football.
Nottingham Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis had got used to the idea of the Tricky Trees making it to Europe’s top table, though.
So when they fell at the last hurdle, he threw his toys out of the pram for all to see as he confronted West Ham’s new head coach on the pitch.
Things were patched up but the pair then fell out again over Marinakis appointing Edu to oversee recruitment, taking the power away from Nuno and his right-hand man, the super agent Jorge Mendes.
When Nuno spoke out publicly, it was seen as a deliberate attempt to force Marinakis to sack him.
A rather ironic 3-0 defeat to West Ham in the next game gave the Greek the perfect excuse.
That remains West Ham’s only Premier League win of the season after nine games – four of those under Nuno.
After an encouraging first couple of matches under the 51-year-old Portuguese, the Hammers have been abysmal in defeats to Brentford and Leeds.
That has left the east Londoners second bottom of the table a quarter of the way through the season.
They are one place and one point below Nuno’s former side Nottingham Forest.
Ange Postecoglou barely lasted a month as Nuno’s replacement at the City Ground.
Sean Dyche is now at the Forest helm and looks set for a season-long battle to survive along with the likes of West Ham, Wolves, Fulham, Burnley and one or two others as things stand.
West Ham and Nottingham Forest could make history for Nuno
The 10-game mark is usually a good guide as to where a team stands looking ahead to the rest of the campaign.
West Ham bring up that marker with a tough home clash against Newcastle while Forest face a rejuvenated Man United.
But where will the two clubs finish come what May?
Opta have updated their final predicted Premier League table and West Ham and Nottingham Forest could make history.
The latest data-driven forecast marks both clubs out to go down in the record books for all the wrong reasons based on their current form.
West Ham already need back-to-back wins and results to go for them elsewhere in order to have a chance of climbing out of the bottom three.
With a win ratio of one in nine so far this season, that is a big ask.
Let alone finding another seven or eight to get enough points to stay up.
West Ham and Forest must somehow go from winning one in nine to one in every three to get the points that will likely be needed to survive.
The record books show that no manager has ever been associated with two Premier League relegations in a single season.
In fact no manager has ever been sacked twice in a single Premier League season.
Now Nuno stands on the precipice of history according to football data experts Opta.
Hammers and Forest to be relegated claims Opta
Because their updated final Premier League table forecasts that both Nottingham Forest and West Ham are going to be relegated this season.
Both of Nuno’s clubs this season will finish in their current positions with Forest ending up 18th on 37 points and West Ham way back on 34 points in 19th.
Wolves will also drop on just 29 points according to the table.
According to Opta, Forest will finish two points adrift of Burnley and Leeds in the safety of 17th and 16th respectively.
To rub salt in the wound for the Hammers, Declan Rice will end his trophy drought since joining Arsenal as Opta thinks the Gunners will be champions by a mammoth 11-point margin to Man City and Liverpool.
As history beckons for Nuno, West Ham fans will be hoping they can prove the statisticians wrong, starting against Newcastle.
