Arsenal 3-1 West Ham United: 5 Talking Points and Tactical Analysis

#5 Is time a luxury that West Ham can afford?

It's three losses in three games for Manuel Pellegrini

West Ham have been known for slow starts to their Premier League campaigns as of late. Last season was no different as a poor return in the first few games led to the sacking of Slaven Bilic as the Hammers' boss. This season also, West Ham have gone on to lose three games in a row.

West Ham have lost their first three games of a Premier League season for the third time since 2010.Not one for fast starts. 😴 pic.twitter.com/UpKcwfxjdE

— Squawka Football (@Squawka) August 25, 2018

Cutting some slack though, Manuel Pellegrini's side did play Liverpool and Arsenal away in this losing run of games. However, failing to secure points against Eddie Howe's Bournemouth at home after having led the game is a big red flag. Also, nothing of much accord came through the Hammers in their opening two games of the season.

While they did turn up with a much better display against Arsenal, it can again be argued that this was because of the Gunners' being a work-in-progress side themselves.

West Ham are supposedly starting from scratch under their Chilean boss but it's not every season that the London-based club spends close to a hundred million pounds. The owners and the fans alike expect results and those results have not been delivered so far.

The Irons need to step up their game big time if all of this is to change. Unfortunately, there's no respite for Pellegrini's men in the month of September, as far as fixtures are concerned. Firstly, they host Nuno Espirito Santo's Wolves, who just managed to hold defending champions Manchester City to a draw. After that, they play Everton away, and then Chelsea and Manchester United at home.

As of right now, West Ham look highly likely to go the same route of Spurs of the 2013-14 season and Everton of last season where a lot of new incoming players resulted in a loss of team chemistry, and an eventual worse off finish as compared to the previous season. West Ham fans can only hope for the better.