Archive November 8, 2025

Saturday started with thousands of West Ham fans protesting with a coffin and hearse – but ended with the Hammers boosting their chances of avoiding relegation.

The supporters, calling for chairman David Sullivan and vice-chair Karren Brady to resign, marched through Stratford before the game.

They are desperately unhappy with the running of the club.

Had they lost to relegation rivals Burnley things could have become very toxic. And they went 1-0 behind.

But a 3-2 win at London Stadium which followed a 3-1 victory over Newcastle, means they are now only in the relegation zone on goal difference.

Two wins in a row will be a huge boost for manager Nuno Espirito Santo, who had started slowly after replacing the sacked Graham Potter.

He seems to have settled on a starting XI and shape too after some unpopular tactical experiments in his early games.

“I’m very, very happy,” Nuno told the BBC after the game. “I am happy for the boys and our fans. This was a massive game for us.

West Ham were good in places – and awful at times – in this game.

All three goals came from balls deflected into the path of the goalscorer.

Burnley went ahead through Zian Flemming’s header and were in control of the game at one point.

West Ham’s first shot on target came in the 44th minute, Callum Wilson’s header following a blocked Crysencio Summerville shot.

They would probably have been booed off at the break by their own fans had Wilson not scored.

And there was no immediate response in the second half.

In fact all they had until the 74th minute were two blocked Lucas Paqueta shots in quick succession.

But then Burnley keeper Martin Dubravka parried the ball to substitute Tomas Soucek to make it 2-1 in the 77th minute, and then to Kyle Walker-Peters for 3-1 in the 87th minute.

Josh Cullen’s consolation came too late for a comeback – and the Hammers celebrated their win.

The stats make for good reading for West Ham, too. This was the first time they have scored three goals in back-to-back Premier League games since March 2024, and their expected goals (xG) of 3.02 was their best total of 2025.

“I think it’s a small step,” said Nuno.

“It’s another day where we have achieved something at London Stadium which means a lot. But we will not get carried away.”

Speaking to Sky, he added: “It’s about trying to improve as a team.

“We’ve let one slip here if we’re being brutally honest,” said Burnley manager Scott Parker.

“We turned the game into what West Ham wanted it to be – a basketball match.

“For 30 minutes we nullified them, but we just fell away.”

The gap could have been six points with a win – but now it is down to goal difference.

Striker Wilson, who scored his second goal for the club after leaving Newcastle in the summer, said: “It was a big game, we knew the magnitude of it.

“We’ve started sticking together as a group more, and being a team. We’ve done that last week and shown that again this week.”

Nuno has won two and drawn one of his six games in charge – with Potter having lost five of his six matches before being sacked.

Wilson added: “It’s a start – we know it’s a process. We’ve not had the best of starts to the season. It wasn’t pretty today by any means, but a win is a win. This is something to go on from.”

A far cry really from even two weeks ago when they were on four points from nine games, a position nobody has stayed up from in the past decade.

West Ham’s supporters will be delighted with the three points, but it changes nothing in terms of the protests.

They want Sullivan and Brady, who have been in control since 2010, to leave.

West Ham won the Conference League in 2022-23, which was their first silverware in 43 years, but seem to have gone backwards since.

Nuno is their third manager, after Julen Lopetegui and Potter, since David Moyes left at the end of 2023-24.

Another gripe is the 62,500-seater London Stadium, which was an athletics ground built for the Olympics, having had to leave the much-loved Upton Park.

The fans are keeping it fresh – there have been several formats of protests this season.

There were organised demonstrations before the 2-1 loss to Crystal Palace on 20 September. That was Potter’s final game.

On 20 October thousands of fans stayed away for the 2-0 defeat by Brentford, in Nuno’s first match in charge.

And on 3 November, last weekend, fans staged a sit-in protest.

This time it was a funeral march through Stratford, ending at the stadium.

Organisers were expecting up to 8,000 fans to join the protests, with West Ham claiming the attendance was between 2,000 to 3,000.

Organisers Hammers United said: “Massive thank you to all of those supporters, young and old who took part in the protest march, an overwhelming success.

“Thousands of you came out and you were clearly heard! COME ON YOU IRONS!”

Saturday started with thousands of West Ham fans protesting with a coffin and hearse – but ended with the Hammers boosting their chances of avoiding relegation.

The supporters, calling for chairman David Sullivan and vice-chair Karren Brady to resign, marched through Stratford before the game.

They are desperately unhappy with the running of the club.

Had they lost to relegation rivals Burnley things could have become very toxic. And they went 1-0 behind.

But a 3-2 win at London Stadium which followed a 3-1 victory over Newcastle, means they are now only in the relegation zone on goal difference.

Two wins in a row will be a huge boost for manager Nuno Espirito Santo, who had started slowly after replacing the sacked Graham Potter.

He seems to have settled on a starting XI and shape too after some unpopular tactical experiments in his early games.

“I’m very, very happy,” Nuno told the BBC after the game. “I am happy for the boys and our fans. This was a massive game for us.

West Ham were good in places – and awful at times – in this game.

All three goals came from balls deflected into the path of the goalscorer.

Burnley went ahead through Zian Flemming’s header and were in control of the game at one point.

West Ham’s first shot on target came in the 44th minute, Callum Wilson’s header following a blocked Crysencio Summerville shot.

They would probably have been booed off at the break by their own fans had Wilson not scored.

And there was no immediate response in the second half.

In fact all they had until the 74th minute were two blocked Lucas Paqueta shots in quick succession.

But then Burnley keeper Martin Dubravka parried the ball to substitute Tomas Soucek to make it 2-1 in the 77th minute, and then to Kyle Walker-Peters for 3-1 in the 87th minute.

Josh Cullen’s consolation came too late for a comeback – and the Hammers celebrated their win.

The stats make for good reading for West Ham, too. This was the first time they have scored three goals in back-to-back Premier League games since March 2024, and their expected goals (xG) of 3.02 was their best total of 2025.

“I think it’s a small step,” said Nuno.

“It’s another day where we have achieved something at London Stadium which means a lot. But we will not get carried away.”

Speaking to Sky, he added: “It’s about trying to improve as a team.

“We’ve let one slip here if we’re being brutally honest,” said Burnley manager Scott Parker.

“We turned the game into what West Ham wanted it to be – a basketball match.

“For 30 minutes we nullified them, but we just fell away.”

The gap could have been six points with a win – but now it is down to goal difference.

Striker Wilson, who scored his second goal for the club after leaving Newcastle in the summer, said: “It was a big game, we knew the magnitude of it.

“We’ve started sticking together as a group more, and being a team. We’ve done that last week and shown that again this week.”

Nuno has won two and drawn one of his six games in charge – with Potter having lost five of his six matches before being sacked.

Wilson added: “It’s a start – we know it’s a process. We’ve not had the best of starts to the season. It wasn’t pretty today by any means, but a win is a win. This is something to go on from.”

A far cry really from even two weeks ago when they were on four points from nine games, a position nobody has stayed up from in the past decade.

West Ham’s supporters will be delighted with the three points, but it changes nothing in terms of the protests.

They want Sullivan and Brady, who have been in control since 2010, to leave.

West Ham won the Conference League in 2022-23, which was their first silverware in 43 years, but seem to have gone backwards since.

Nuno is their third manager, after Julen Lopetegui and Potter, since David Moyes left at the end of 2023-24.

Another gripe is the 62,500-seater London Stadium, which was an athletics ground built for the Olympics, having had to leave the much-loved Upton Park.

The fans are keeping it fresh – there have been several formats of protests this season.

There were organised demonstrations before the 2-1 loss to Crystal Palace on 20 September. That was Potter’s final game.

On 20 October thousands of fans stayed away for the 2-0 defeat by Brentford, in Nuno’s first match in charge.

And on 3 November, last weekend, fans staged a sit-in protest.

This time it was a funeral march through Stratford, ending at the stadium.

Organisers were expecting up to 8,000 fans to join the protests, with West Ham claiming the attendance was between 2,000 to 3,000.

Organisers Hammers United said: “Massive thank you to all of those supporters, young and old who took part in the protest march, an overwhelming success.

“Thousands of you came out and you were clearly heard! COME ON YOU IRONS!”

Elena Rybakina claimed the biggest payday in women’s tennis history by beating world number one Aryna Sabalenka in straight sets in the WTA Finals.

The 26-year-old produced a stunning display to overcome four-time Grand Slam winner Sabalenka 6-3 7-6 (7-0) in Saudi Arabia.

Because both players came through the tournament undefeated, the prize money on offer was a record-breaking £3.98m – the largest payout offering in women’s tennis history.

The prize money tops the £3.74m Sabalenka, 27, earned for winning September’s US Open, which was the highest-paying Grand Slam in 2025.

“It’s been an incredible week,” said Rybakina, of Kazakhstan.

“I honestly didn’t expect any result so to go so far was just incredible.

“I want to say congratulations to Aryna for being number one for a second year in a row, it’s an incredible achievement.”

Rybakina, who was the world number six, hit 16 winners during a dominant first-set display.

The 2022 Wimbledon winner saved two break points before winning all four points in the sixth game to go a break up and held her serve to seal the first set.

With the second set on serve, Sabalenka saved two break points at 4-4 to swing the momentum in her favour.

But, having worked so hard to upset Rybakina’s rhythm, Sabalenka let her opponent off the hook by squandering two set points in the next game to level the second set at 5-5.

Sabalenka’s failure to level the match affected her tie-break performance, with Rybakina winning all seven points to take home the title.

The victory, Rybakina’s sixth over Sabalenka, means the she will move up one spot in the rankings to fifth in the world.

A distraught Sabalenka appeared to be in tears as she sat with her coaching team shortly after the match.

“It was not the best performance from me today but Elena you were definitely the better player,” Sabalenka, of Belarus, told the crowd.

A dramatic – or drab – Saturday lunchtime Premier League match with as many questions as answers, and for Manchester United a major injury scare.

It is difficult to know where to start when it comes to analysing Tottenham’s 2-2 draw with Manchester United.

First, the scare.

United striker Benjamin Sesko was introduced into the game for Noussair Mazraoui after 58 minutes.

The Slovenian had already wasted a couple of opportunities when he suffered an injury three minutes from time chasing down a long ball. It was immediately obvious Sesko could not continue, and as United had already used all five substitutes they had to complete the game, which stood at 1-1, with 10 men.

Head coach Ruben Amorim confirmed afterwards Sesko had sustained a knee injury, but did not know how serious it was. However, in connection to a question about the January transfer window, Amorim said “because it’s the knee you never know” – the inference being it might be.

That would be a major issue, particularly as United will lose two of their main offensive threats – Bryan Mbeumo and Amad Diallo – to the Africa Cup of Nations in December.

“We have to check, it’s something in his knee,” said Amorim.

On the transfer situation: “We have to check everything. We have to check what has happened with Ben.

Losing Sesko would be an unhappy postscript to a very strange game.

With 10 minutes remaining, Tottenham looked certain to be heading for a third successive home defeat in the Premier League as they were unable to find a response to Mbeumo’s first-half header.

But, just as they did at Nottingham Forest a week earlier, United were undone by a cross and after conceding once to Mathys Tel, they gave away another, as Richarlison emotionally celebrated what he thought was a stoppage-time winner.

But, just as they did at Nottingham Forest, United equalised, this time leaving it really late, the final minute of six added on as Matthijs de Ligt rescued the 10 men.

“The emotions inside me are high,” smiled Tottenham boss Thomas Frank as he spoke to the media afterwards.

The detail takes a bit of digging for.

For his part, Amorim felt, unlike at Nottingham Forest, his side were “comfortable in the game”. Too comfortable as it turned out.

“We should do better, be more aggressive, feel the environment in the stadium,” he added.

The result extended Manchester United’s unbeaten run to five games. But for the second week in succession, they had been second in the ‘as it stands’ table and blew their lead.

“We have a lot of problems,” said Amorim. “We are just in the beginning.

“Sometimes the results show people we are improving but have a lot to do.”

The main problem, Amorim said, came through his side’s response to losing the experience of midfielder Casemiro and defender Harry Maguire, both of whom have contracts expiring in the summer.

Midfielder Kobbie Mainoo was missing through injury and Manuel Ugarte is not good enough when it comes to Casemiro’s available replacements. For Maguire, Leny Yoro has already swapped places a few times this season but, at 19, lacks Maguire’s longevity and game intelligence.

United have conceded two goals in each of their past three games now. Amorim said on Thursday his side have an issue there.

His explanation was a lack of aggressive intent to cut out crosses.

We also have to take Frank at his word when he said his selection of two direct forward players in Richarlison and Randal Kolo Muani was based around exploiting his opponents’ vulnerability.

“We wanted two strikers for the crosses, which we thought was an area where we could potentially hurt United,” said Frank, pointing to an early chance Richarlison wasted as evidence his selection was the right one.

But the former Brentford boss was also mixing his messages.

Frank felt Tottenham had done well to limit United to five shots.

Yet that, he stressed, was not the same as saying his defence had actually played well.

“I don’t think I said they played well,” he said.

“The two shots they had, maybe even on target, were two situations we probably could have done better in.

“We will, of course, look through that and go through the details.”

The biggest plus from a Tottenham perspective was they did not lose a third Premier League home game in a row, which also means they avoided a 10th home defeat in 2025, which would have been a record for a calendar year.

However, they have still only collected 14 points from their past 20 home games. No top-flight side has a worse record than that.

Still, on a strange day, when neither side played well but both contributed to a memorable game, taking the positives, for Frank, included not losing.

“We are playing at home and I know we need to win so we don’t talk about it [losing at home],” he said.

“But the way we stayed in the game in the second half and kept doing the right things, I am very happy with that.

“It was a game where both teams tried to cancel each other out a little bit.