What went wrong for Graham Potter? West Ham stats make for grim reading after sacking confirmed

West Ham United have confirmed that head coach Graham Potter has been relieved of his duties after just nine months in charge.

The 50-year-old was dismissed on Saturday morning, less than 24 hours after he performed pre-match media duties on Friday ahead of the Hammers travelling to Everton for their next Premier League fixture on Monday.

Potter departs West Ham with the club struggling in 19th place in the Premier League table after accumulating just three points from their opening five matches of the new season.

In a club statement, the Hammers have said that “results and performances over the course of the second half of last season and the start of the 2025-26 season have not matched expectations.”

West Ham’s board of directors, who has been heavily criticised by the club's supporters in recent weeks, “believe that a change is necessary in order to help improve the team’s position in the Premier League as soon as possible,” with the process of appointing a successor already “underway”.

Potter has become the second Premier League manager to lose his job this season after Nuno Espirito Santo, who has been confirmed as West Ham's new head coach less than three weeks after his dismissal by Nottingham Forest.

Potter’s forgettable tenure as West Ham head coach assessed

Some supporters, and even Potter himself, will argue that the Englishman should have been given more time to turn West Ham’s fortunes around, but it is difficult to justify patience when the team is clearly regressing.

Following spells at Brighton and Chelsea, Potter was appointed Hammers boss in January and replaced Julen Lopetegui, who was sacked just six months into his reign following a poor start with a squad strengthened with summer signings costing in excess of £120m.

Potter struggled to set the world alight in the West Ham hotseat, though, winning just five of his 18 Premier League games as the Hammers limped to a 14th-placed finish - the same position Lopetegui had left the club in.

This summer, West Ham lost star attacker Mohammed Kudus to Tottenham and spent £126m on eight new signings, including the £42m purchase of midfielder Mateus Fernandes from Southampton, the £19m arrival of left-back El Hadji Malick Diouf and the £18m addition of goalkeeper Mads Hermansen.

Four wins in five pre-season matches gave supporters hope heading into the new season, but West Ham’s Premier League campaign began in disappointing fashion with a 3-0 defeat at newly-promoted Sunderland.

A heavy 5-1 home loss to Chelsea followed, before crashing out in the second round of the EFL Cup at the hands of fellow top-flight strugglers Wolverhampton Wanderers, losing 3-2 at Molineux despite leading with just eight minutes remaining.

A surprise yet deserved 3-0 win at Nottingham Forest briefly eased the pressure on Potter, before home defeats to Tottenham (3-0) and Crystal Palace (2-1) last weekend proved to be the final nail in the coffin for the Englishman, who was the subject of a viral trend on social media with people using AI technology to swap his face on to other celebrities including Donald Trump, Sydney Sweeney and the Chuckle Brothers.

Stats show that West Ham went backwards under Potter

Potter’s 24% win rate across all competitions (G23 W6 D5 L14) is the worst of any permanent West Ham manager in the club’s history and it is also the worst of his managerial career. In comparison, his predecessor Lopetegui departed the Hammers with a win percentage of 39.1% across his 23 games in charge.

In the Premier League alone, Potter’s points-per-game ratio of just 1.0 represents the lowest of all permanent West Ham managers except for Avram Grant (0.9).

A poor run of just three wins in his final 16 matches in charge does not make for good reading for Potter, who also failed to win any of his last eight games at the London Stadium - Hammers supporters have not celebrated a home win since February.

Indeed, Potter struggled to grind out positive results at the London Stadium, with his West Ham team picking up a total of nine points from 12 home league matches and possessing a -10 goal difference - the lowest in both metrics of all 17 ever-present Premier League teams since his appointment.

Once lauded for his philosophy and tactical approach at previous clubs, Potter was unable to truly implement his possession-based style of play at the London Stadium and many West Ham fans were left frustrated, questioning whether the team was heading in the right direction.

Under Potter, West Ham have conceded a division-high 13 Premier League goals this season and they rank first in the top-flight for allowing the opposition more passes before intervening.

West Ham’s vulnerability from set-pieces, in particular, has been highlighted this season; their set-piece xGA has already reached 3.5 after just five games, while they have also conceded the most shots from set pieces (28, or 5.6 per 90 minutes).

Nuno Espirito Santo and his coaching staff are expected to prioritise set-piece improvements in training and will hope to bring the best out of several so-called star names who have underperformed having now taken the reins at West Ham.