With the season only two months old, Gianfranco Zola, the West Ham United manager, has described Sunday’s Barclays Premier League match at home to Fulham as a “cup final”.

With West Ham in the relegation zone after taking only four points from their first six matches and continuing financial uncertainty behind the scenes, fans are steeled for a protracted struggle against relegation.

There was something particularly poignant about watching Carlos Tévez destroy West Ham in Manchester City’s 3-1 victory on Monday. After all, his name is still sung by supporters in appreciation of his endeavour in helping to keep them up three seasons ago.

West Ham’s starting XI at the City of Manchester Stadium cost little more than half the £47 million that City — with the seemingly unlimited riches of their Arab owners — paid for the services of the Argentina forward, reflecting two vastly differing tales of foreign ownership.

The Icelandic owners, who bought the East London club in 2006, invested funds at a level intended to make an impact, only to be hit by a financial meltdown that has left West Ham about £45 million in debt and effectively up for sale.

There are similarities with Portsmouth, who have not earned a point this season after being forced to sell many of their high earners in the summer, although the widely predicted fire sale at Upton Park has yet to materialise.

West Ham had already recognised they were living beyond their means before the credit crunch, with Björgólfur Gudmundsson, the former owner, forced into bankruptcy by the collapse of Landsbanki, of which he was the majority owner.

Straumur, another Icelandic bank with its own financial troubles, took charge and enforced self-sufficiency on the club, leaving some fans to believe that off-field problems have begun to translate on to the pitch, where the team have won only one league match and made an early exit from the Carling Cup.

To them, the situation was summed up when two senior officials — Scott Duxbury, the chief executive, and Gianluca Nani, the technical director — needed to take a small pay cut to fund the wages of Guillermo Franco, a forward and free agent.

However, a lack of finance is not the only reason for West Ham’s struggles. Cashflow problems were apparent last season, yet the emergence of talented young players such as Junior Stanislas, Jack Collison and James Tomkins helped to keep the team competitive.

The conjuring act has proven harder to pull off this campaign. Zola was tasked in the summer transfer window with balancing his books on player recruitment and trimming the wage bill to reduce losses that were nearly £1 million a month midway through last season.

The manager kept nearly all of the starting side that finished ninth in May — only Lucas Neill departed — but any hopes of raising money to strengthen the team were affected by injuries to some of the players who were surplus to requirements, such as Luís Boa Morte, Calum Davenport and Dean Ashton.

The owners point out that Zola has lost none of his promising youngsters or Matthew Upson, the England central defender, despite receiving offers, and that previous chairmen have sold young talent when in trouble.

West Ham also believe there has been an overreaction to the team’s poor start as four of their six league matches have been away from Upton Park and their two home fixtures have been against Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool. Three of their defeats have been by the odd goal.

The return of Valon Behrami, Collison and Upson from injury should also help Zola to bolster his defence in the coming weeks.

Scoring has, however, been a key problem. They have managed only six league goals this season and are heavily reliant on Carlton Cole, the England forward, who has been responsible for half that total.

Yet in the background, the financial problems linger. Straumur’s creditors are deciding the future direction of the bank, which may have negative implications for the club. No buyer has been willing to meet their £100 million price tag on West Ham.

After a difficult start, Zola managed to engineer a revival in West Ham’s fortunes when he took over just over a year ago. As this season enters its third month, fans must be hoping for something similar.

Net losses: how the goals have dried up

West Ham United strikers’ league records since January 1

Players left or on loan Goals Apps
David Di Michele 2 18
Freddie Sears 0 7
Diego Tristán 2 10
Players still at club
Luís Boa Morte 0 13
Carlton Cole 8 16
Alessandro Diamanti 1 3
Frank Nouble 0 3