Nuno Espirito Santo needs win against Al Shabab to ease pressure at Al Ittihad

Buoyed by the Ballon d’Or holder and a host of headline arrivals, Al Ittihad began this season just as they concluded the last.

The Saudi Pro League champions, still basking in a first title in 14 years, raced out of the blocks in August, winning their first four league matches. They didn’t concede a goal.

The 4-3 defeat in the “Saudi Clasico”, then, felt an aberration. Ittihad were 3-1 up at half-time at home to Al Hilal, but would finish the match beaten, their collective ego more than a little bruised.

But they rebounded to triumph in successive matches, and all felt right in Jeddah once more.

Then they started to stutter. As it stands, Ittihad have failed to win any of their past four league matches, drawing three and losing one. It proved particularly hurtful: it came in the Jeddah derby, at home, to Al Ahli.

Last week, despite Karim Benzema’s opener for the hosts, Ittihad stumbled to a 2-2 draw with Al Hazem, the side second bottom in the table. Ittihad, perched at the summit after those first four rounds, had slipped to sixth.

Of course, it has piled the pressure on manager Nuno Espirito Santo. Where the Portuguese coach was celebrated last season for guiding the storied club to a ninth top-flight title, and in the process resurrecting his own career, the past few weeks have been fraught with criticism and conjecture. With it, they have carried tales of player unrest.

Even back in August, when Ittihad’s form was fantastic, Nuno had to deny rumours of a rift with Benzema. The theory went that Real Madrid’s all-time second-highest goalscorer had been foisted upon the former Tottenham Hotspur manager; that he was a club, or a league, signing as the kingdom’s principal football competition entered its starry new era.