There was no chance of a pitch invasion at the London Stadium. And even if a few fans had gotten onto the turf during West Ham United’s 3-1 home defeat by West Brom, it would’ve brought back memories of that irate supporter storming into the centre circle in 2018, corner flag in hand.

‘If Taty scores, we’re on the pitch’ was the very audible chant leaking out of a rapidly-emptying home ground as West Brom deepened Nuno Espirito Santo’s woes.

It was a half-chance, yes. Probably a quarter-chance, if anything. But we’ve seen the Argentina international score with this sort of finish before; see the 3-1 defeat by Newcastle in May. Five months later, the scoreline was the same, and so was the feeling of gloom among a fanbase who saw their side stumble to eighth in the second-tier table.

‘If Taty scores, we’re on the pitch’. Gallows humour, and Taty is on the chopping block.

West Ham United fans turn on Taty Castellanos in West Brom loss

Castellanos was dreadful in an increasingly rare West Ham start against Southampton last week. He was back on the bench here, only parachuted into the action as Nuno pleaded for a goal. One would arrive moments later, but not in the right end.

Callum Styles fired a deflected volley through a Dinos Mavropanos-less defence and past a helpless Mads Hermansen.

Unlike seven days earlier when The Saints found themselves on cloud nine, there wouldn’t even be a late consolation. Tomas Soucek scored brilliantly off the bench to pull one back on matchday eleven.

But you could have put two separate goal frames on top of each other here and Taty still wouldn’t have found a way past an underworked Max O’Leary.

Castellanos’ tally now stands at one goal in 12 Championship appearances. One goal in over 800 minutes of action. That the fans now feel a goal is so unlikely that it would warrant an impromptu pitch invasion – no matter how tongue in cheek those chants may have been – it is impossible to shake the feeling that both West Ham and Taty have hit a new low.