LEEDS, England (AP) — Nuno Espirito Santo became the first West Ham coach since 2018 to go winless in his first four games as his struggling team showed the same defensive frailties that have plagued it all season in a 2-1 loss to Leeds in the Premier League on Friday.
The Portuguese coach joined the Hammers a month ago after leading Nottingham Forest to a place in Europe but he has been unable to turn things around quickly in east London.
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West Ham United's Callum Wilson, left, and Leeds United's Joe Rodon in action during the English Premier League soccer match between Leeds United and West Ham United at Elland Road, Leeds, England, Friday Oct. 24, 2025. (Danny Lawson/PA via AP)
Leeds United's Brenden Aaronson, right, celebrates with Ethan Ampadu after scoring their side's first goal of the game during the English Premier League soccer match between Leeds United and West Ham United in Leeds, England, Friday Oct. 24, 2025. (Danny Lawson/PA via AP)
Leeds United's Brenden Aaronson, right, celebrates scoring with teammates during the English Premier League soccer match between Leeds United and West Ham United at Elland Road, Leeds, England, Friday Oct. 24, 2025. (Danny Lawson/PA via AP)
Leeds United's goalkeeper Lucas Perri dives in vain as West Ham United's Mateus Fernandes, right, scores their side's first goal during the English Premier League soccer match between Leeds United and West Ham United at Elland Road, Leeds, England, Friday Oct. 24, 2025. (Danny Lawson/PA via AP)
West Ham United's Max Kilman, rear, and Leeds United's Dominic Calvert-Lewin in action during the English Premier League soccer match between Leeds United and West Ham United at Elland Road, Leeds, England, Friday Oct. 24, 2025. (Danny Lawson/PA via AP)
He now has three losses and one draw since taking over, a record equal to that of Manuel Pellegrini when he took charge of the club in 2018.
Off the field, supporters have expressed their discontent with the board, with thousands boycotting Monday night’s loss at home to Brentford.
The team has defended poorly all season — conceding nine goals from corners, three times more than any other side — leading to the sacking of Graham Potter. And it was 2-0 down after just 15 minutes at Leeds thanks once again to hesitant defending.
Goalkeeper Alphonse Areola could not hold Noah Okafor’s header after three minutes and U.S. international Brenden Aaronson pounced to sidefoot home the loose ball as the West Ham defenders watched on.
The back line was equally lackadaisical 12 minutes later when Joe Rodon headed home unchallenged from a corner kick.
Mateus Fernandes' deft header in the final minute gave the Hammers a consolation goal but an equalizer never looked likely.
The win lifts Leeds into 13th place on 11 points, while West Ham is 19th with four points and the league’s worst goal difference.
That points tally is its joint worst at this stage of the season. Only in the 1932-33 and 1973-74 campaigns have the Hammers started as poorly as now.
“We’re in a real situation and we have to face the reality of that," West Ham captain Jarrod Bowen told Sky Sports. ”You have to face up to the reality of where we are and we’re in trouble now.
“We have to go out there and fight more than anything. The Premier League is the hardest league. We’re not playing well and not getting results. We need to change it. We’re the only ones that can change it."
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West Ham United's Callum Wilson, left, and Leeds United's Joe Rodon in action during the English Premier League soccer match between Leeds United and West Ham United at Elland Road, Leeds, England, Friday Oct. 24, 2025. (Danny Lawson/PA via AP)
Leeds United's Brenden Aaronson, right, celebrates with Ethan Ampadu after scoring their side's first goal of the game during the English Premier League soccer match between Leeds United and West Ham United in Leeds, England, Friday Oct. 24, 2025. (Danny Lawson/PA via AP)
Leeds United's Brenden Aaronson, right, celebrates scoring with teammates during the English Premier League soccer match between Leeds United and West Ham United at Elland Road, Leeds, England, Friday Oct. 24, 2025. (Danny Lawson/PA via AP)
Leeds United's goalkeeper Lucas Perri dives in vain as West Ham United's Mateus Fernandes, right, scores their side's first goal during the English Premier League soccer match between Leeds United and West Ham United at Elland Road, Leeds, England, Friday Oct. 24, 2025. (Danny Lawson/PA via AP)
West Ham United's Max Kilman, rear, and Leeds United's Dominic Calvert-Lewin in action during the English Premier League soccer match between Leeds United and West Ham United at Elland Road, Leeds, England, Friday Oct. 24, 2025. (Danny Lawson/PA via AP)
DEIR AL BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — A grandmother and her 5-year-old grandson burned to death in Gaza when their tent caught fire while cooking, as thousands of Palestinians endure colder weather in makeshift housing.
The nylon tent in Yarmouk caught fire Thursday night while a meal was being prepared, a neighbor said. A hospital official said that two Palestinian men were killed by Israeli gunfire on Friday in Gaza.
The shaky 12-week-old ceasefire between Israel and the Hamas militant group has largely ended large-scale Israeli bombardment of Gaza. But Palestinians are still being killed by Israeli forces, especially along the so-called Yellow Line that delineates areas under Israeli control.
On Friday, American actor and film producer Angelina Jolie visited the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip.
Over the past few weeks, cold winter rains have repeatedly lashed the sprawling tent cities, causing flooding, turning Gaza’s dirt roads into mud and causing damaged buildings to collapse.
Aid groups say not enough shelter materials are getting into Gaza during the truce. Figures recently released by Israel’s military suggest it hasn’t met the ceasefire stipulation of allowing 600 trucks of aid into Gaza a day, though Israel disputes that finding.
Israel has said throughout the war that Hamas was siphoning off aid supplies, preventing the population in Gaza from receiving them. Last month, the World Food Program said that there have been “notable improvements” in food security in Gaza since the ceasefire.
Palestinians have long called for mobile homes and caravans to be allowed in to protect them against living in impractical and worn out tents.
Jolie met with members of the Red Crescent on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing and then visited a hospital in the nearby city of Arish to speak with Palestinian patients on Friday, according to Egyptian officials.
Her visit sought to raise support for the displaced and humanitarian workers in the crises in Gaza as well as in Sudan, Jolie's team said in a statement.
“What needs to happen is clear: the ceasefire must hold, and access must be sustained, safe and urgently scaled up so that aid, fuel and critical medical supplies can move quickly and consistently, at the volume required,” Jolie said about Gaza.
Reopening the crossing, which would allow Palestinians to leave Gaza — especially the ill and wounded who could get specialized care unavailable in the territory — has been contentious. Israel has said that it will only allow Palestinians to exit Gaza, not enter, until militants in Gaza return all the hostages they took in the attack on Oct. 7, 2023, which triggered the war. The remains of one hostage are still in Gaza.
Israel also says Palestinians wanting to leave Gaza will have to get Israeli and Egyptian security approval. Egypt, meanwhile, says it wants the crossing immediately opened in both directions, so Palestinians in Egypt can enter Gaza. That’s a position rooted in Egypt’s vehement opposition to Palestinian refugees permanently resettling in the country.
For more than two decades until 2022, Jolie was a special envoy to the U.N. refugee agency.
On Friday, the foreign ministers of Arab and Muslim countries, including Egypt, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, expressed concern about Gaza's humanitarian situation.
The situation has been “compounded by the continued lack of sufficient humanitarian access, acute shortages of essential life-saving supplies, and the slow pace of the entry of essential materials," according to the joint statement.
The Palestinian death toll from the war is at least 71,271, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which doesn't distinguish between militants and civilians in its count. The Israel-Hamas war began with the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attack in southern Israel that killed about 1,200 people and saw 251 taken hostage.
On Friday, two Palestinian men were killed in separate incidents by Israeli gunfire in the Khan Younis area of southern Gaza, a hospital official said. Israel's military said troops operating in the southern Gaza Strip killed a person who “crossed the Yellow Line and approached the troops, posing an immediate threat to them."
Meanwhile, Israel continues operating in the occupied West Bank.
On Friday, the Palestinian Prisoners media office said that Israel carried out numerous raids across the territory, including the major cities of Ramallah and Hebron. Nearly 50 people were detained, following the arrest of at least 50 other Palestinians on Thursday, most of those in the Ramallah area.
Israel's military said there were arrests made of people “involved in terrorist activity." Last week, a Palestinian attacker rammed his car into a man and then stabbed a young woman in northern Israel, killing both of them, police said.
The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society says that Israel has arrested 7,000 Palestinians in the West Bank and Jerusalem this year, and 21,000 since the war began. The number arrested from Gaza isn't made public by Israel.
Find more of AP’s Israel-Hamas coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
Fatima Abu al-Bayd inspects what remains of her mother's tent after her mother, Amal Abu Al-Khair, and grandchild, Saud, were killed when it caught fire overnight at the Yarmouk displacement camp in Gaza City, Friday, Jan. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
CORRECTS BYLINE TO EMAD ELGEBALY - American actor and film producer Angelina Jolie, front left, greets Red Crecent workers during her visit to the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip in Rafah, Egypt, Friday, Jan. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Emad Elgebaly)
Magdi Abu Al-Khair bids farewell to his mother Amal Abu Al-Khair at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, Friday, Jan. 2, 2026, after she and her grandchild Saud were killed when their tent caught fire overnight at the Yarmouk displacement camp. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
American actor and film producer Angelina Jolie, front left, greets Red Crecent workers during her visit to the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip in Rafah, Egypt, Friday, Jan. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Mohamed Arafat)
The bodies of Amal Abu Al-Khair and her grandchild, Saud, are transferred to Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City after they were killed when their tent caught fire overnight at the Yarmouk displacement camp, Friday, Jan. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Fatima Abu al-Bayd inspects what remains of her mother's tent after her mother, Amal Abu Al-Khair, and grandchild, Saud, were killed when it caught fire overnight at the Yarmouk displacement camp in Gaza City, Friday, Jan. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Fatima Abu al-Bayd inspects what remains of her mother's tent after her mother, Amal Abu Al-Khair, and grandchild, Saud, were killed when it caught fire overnight at the Yarmouk displacement camp in Gaza City, Friday, Jan. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Magdi Abu Al-Khair bids farewell to his mother, Amal Abu Al-Khair, after she and her grandchild, Saud, were killed when their tent caught fire overnight at the Yarmouk displacement camp, at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, Friday, Jan. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
