Matthew Etherington suggests West Ham and Stoke are suffering the same problem

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West Ham United and Stoke City are suffering from the same problem this season, according to former winger Matthew Etherington.

Stoke City manager Mark Hughes and West Ham manager Slaven Bilic

The Hammers and Stoke enjoyed fantastic campaigns last season but have both started the new one in terrible form.

Both clubs find themselves in the bottom three with Stoke bottom of the table with just one point from their first five games and the Hammers third from bottom with a solitary win over Bournemouth.

Slaven Bilic and Mark Hughes are already under pressure and both their side’s are shipping goals far too easily with Stoke already sporting a -11 goal difference.

Dimitri Payet apologises after West Ham’s 4-2 thrashing at West Brom

West Ham and Stoke both have a clutch of exciting attacking players who caught the eye last season in the likes of Dimitri Payet, Manuel Lanzini, Marko Arnautovic and Xherdan Shaqiri.

But this season the Potters and East Londoners seem to be struggling for balance.

And former winger Matthew Etherington, who enjoyed spells at both clubs, has told talkSPORT he sees striking similarities between the two clubs this season.

Matthew Etherington

“Mark Hughes has done a fantastic job there,” Etherington told Alan Brazil’s Sports Breakfast.

“In patches they’ve (Stoke) been doing ok and looking a decent team but defensively at the minute they’re just all over the place

“It’s kind of the same thing there (West Ham) as well isn’t it, I mean you look at the goals (they are conceding)… there’s issues there at the back.

“You don’t become bad players overnight and you don’t become a bad manager overnight but again (like Stoke) they need a result.

“You look at the likes of (Dimitri) Payet and (Manuel) Lanzini and players like that I think’ll they’ll be ok eventually and Bilic is a good manager but they just need a result and I don’t think it will be easy at the weekend against Southampton either.”

Happier times: Bilic and Hughes last season

The Hammers entertain Southampton at the London Stadium on Sunday in what is already being billed as something of a six-pointer.

Bilic’s side then have another home game against newly-promoted Middlesbrough next weekend.

Meanwhile Stoke take on in-form West Brom on Saturday in search of some light at the end of an increasingly dark tunnel knowing they face Manchester United at Old Trafford next weekend.