It's another Bank Holiday weekend

 It's West Ham and another Bank Holiday weekend.

It was rather like waking up to find that you'd lost your wallet, mislaid your keys and then discovered that this was no nightmare and it did indeed happen. You were stunned, appalled, dumbfounded, quite flabbergasted and wondering whether your football club would ever recover from this most disastrous blow. Football supporters would like to think that, ideally, their team could win every single match throughout the Premier League season in the way that Arsenal once remained unbeaten throughout theirs.

But you were never prepared for the horrendous events which unfolded last night at the London Stadium. West Ham United had already lost their opening day of the season encounter with promoted Sunderland at the Stadium of Light. Perhaps the most galling aspect of last Saturday was the compliant nature of West Ham's defeat. They were destroyed, thumped, overwhelmed by Sunderland and there was something very feeble and submissive about the loss that must have grated with even the most devoted hardcore of West Ham's fanbase. 

What we saw last night was a West Ham in emotional meltdown, almost confused and bemused, struggling desperately to achieve any semblance of mutual understanding on the pitch, a disturbing lack of attacking co-ordination and any kind of forward thinking momentum. In a word, West Ham were clueless. Now the thought occurs to you that all may not be completely beyond repair because, essentially, we're only two games into the new Premier League season and a major re-structuring of the side's midfield could stop the rot. 

And yet during the summer, the chairmen, directors and members of West Ham's so called recruitment team simply dropped off to sleep in the sweltering heatwave. Perhaps they felt there was no immediate cause to panic and that, given time, new players would arrive by the conveyor belt. For a while, some of us gave the club the benefit of the doubt and patience would be a virtue. But then, desperation set in when the players needed for this radical overhaul became either too expensive or distinctly unimpressed by the promises West Ham could offer if they joined the club immediately.  

So here we are with just over a week to go before the transfer window is shut for a while. West Ham have the sum total of four players, a new goalkeeper, two defenders and two strikers whose combined age is so old that even their fans can hardly remember what it was like to have a young, dynamic side. This week alone, West Ham have been heavily linked with Southampton's young Portuguese midfield player Mattheus Fernandes, Quentin Timber, the flying Dutch winger and, in the last couple of days, the strong, sturdy and hearteningly creative defensive midfield French Under 21 player Soungoutou Magassa. 

The chances are that in the forthcoming week Magassa will probably sign for West Ham and the club might have a proper compass, a real focus, a significant change of fortunes and, a genuine sense of direction. To disenchanted West Ham supporters this may be regarded as nothing more than a sticking plaster, some temporary measure designed to pacify and appease them. Who is this youngster and is he the answer to West Ham's almost permanently chronic problems? Besides, Magassa is no Sir Trevor Brooking, Alan Devonshire or the terribly under rated Alan Curbishley. 

Last night, West Ham were criminally exposed and left to hang out to dry..All the encouraging signs shown in their pre season tour of the USA, vanished without trace. There was a worrying lack of any creativity, productivity, brightness and boldness, athleticism and, above all confidence about the team. There were round pegs in square holes, very little in the way of imagination and innovation. There was a lumbering ordinariness about the Hammers, a muddled mediocrity and only the Brazilian Lucas Paqueta, alongside perhaps Aaron Wan Bissaka, to redeem the whole performance.

Their opponents yesterday evening were Chelsea and once again you didn't need a degree in quantum physics to know what was wrong with West Ham. There is a clear disconnect within the club, something very static and sloppy about them, a feeling that nothing had been done during the close season to address this most urgent of issues. And then there is Graham Potter, West Ham's now vilified manager, attacked at every level, blamed for everything and of course under pressure. It's all his fault, or is it?

The team who play their football at the London Stadium have now conceded eight goals in their opening two games and surely that statistic tells its own graphic story. West Ham are now at rock bottom of the Premier League and this must hurt them, tearing at the very infrastructure of the side. Wounding accusations of shoddy mismanagement, absolute incompetence and a complete lack of any investment in the club have to be put right. Before it's too late.

Some of us of course have been here before. When Ron Greenwood left West Ham in the late 1970s, after 20 years of exemplary service and superb management, it was widely felt that, although the club would never threaten the bigger boys in the playground at the top of the old First Division, at least they could still tread water, remain buoyant and still remain one of the most entertaining sides in the top flight.

Then, West Ham were relegated to the old Second Division and all of those commendable principles fell by the wayside. Upton Park would play host to the likes of Oldham, Preston, Grimsby, Millwall, Shrewsbury, Notts County, Swansea and Cardiff. Sadly, these were not the household names that the club had become accustomed to playing. This was a cautionary tale, a rude awakening to those who felt the East Londoners were a well respected national treasure in footballing circles, lovably gentle and inoffensive and dedicated to football that was played in the right way but never good enough to win anything.

There were times during those difficult days in the old Second Division when the opposition at Upton Park were just swept aside rather like the dust on the surface of an old dining room table. West Ham were far too good for those lower division sides who just weren't in the same class as the team in claret and blue. And yet for three long and meandering seasons, West Ham were shamefully incapable of beating the unglamorous names of the Football League pyramid. It was time to roll up the proverbial sleeves and knuckle down the task in hand. It took ages to amend the fault lines but eventually they came up with roses and smelt the coffee.

So here we are back in the present day. The gloom and doom mongers, the moaners and complainers, the pessimists and despondent voices can be found in every corner of the East End. From the fans who used to congregate at Green Street market to the Boleyn Ground, a now sadly decaying stadium that once housed its charming assembly of natural, homegrown talent. It was all quite sad and threadbare.  But hope springs eternal because where can the club be without it? Will the London Stadium become their downfall? Some of us will be hoping for the best rather than the worst.

West Ham now face two of the most critical games at this infant stage of the new season. They travel to Wolves in the Carabao Cup on Tuesday and then move back into the Midlands for their next Premier League match against Nottingham Forest at the City Ground. Forest have spent heavily in the transfer window and will be showing no remorse for West Ham's deepening predicament. The omens don't look good but then again who knows?

Here we are again on Saturday and those lovely traditionalists will be grumbling under their breath. You will listen to your weekly schedule of football matches ranging from the Premier League and right through to the Championship, and Leagues One and Two through gritted teeth. There will be a good deal of terrified forbearance and a naive optimism based on nothing in particular. We know what might happen but dare not predict the future with any certainty.

At the moment, it does look as though long, hard winter stretches in front of West Ham. The first autumnal leaves will rapidly be replaced by the first frosts. The Premier League will become that turbulent roller coaster that almost left the club gasping for air last season. And yet, bizarrely, football supporters tend to criticise their team without knowing quite why. It's the managers who become the target for the boo boys, the players responsible for this current state of turmoil and maybe we wonder at  our own preposterous sense of loyalty to our football club. 

We point our accusing fingers at our own motives for going to our home ground, ask questions about our footballing allegiances. Are we the ones with delusions of grandeur, are we the ones who should stop taking football and sport too seriously? Our health and happiness should be foremost in our minds and nothing else should matter. But come three o'clock this afternoon we'll be bellowing our encouragement, maintaining once and all that your team is the greatest in the land and we're going to win the Premier League. Some of us will privately chuckle at the absurdity of it all. Still, for the team who won the World Cup for England in 1966, we must think that better days in football lie ahead of us. Come on you Irons.