Stoke slumped to a fifth defeat in six to heap further pressure on Mark Hughes as West Ham's Marko Arnautovic came back to haunt his old club in a 3-0 win.
Chants of "Hughes Out" and "sacked in the morning" were heard from home supporters at the bet365 Stadium, where kick-off had been delayed by an hour due to a power cut.
Once proceedings got under way, David Moyes' West Ham were sent on their way by a controversially-awarded Mark Noble penalty, which could result in retrospective punishment for Manuel Lanzini after he appeared to dive, and Hughes' mood was darkened further by goals from Arnautovic and substitute Diafra Sakho.
It was particularly galling for Hughes that Arnautovic got on scoresheet given he was booed throughout having forced through a £25 million summer move to West Ham, who moved above Stoke in the table with this win.
Stoke chairman Peter Coates had identified this fixture and last Tuesday's with Burnley as pivotal and Hughes' position may now be precarious after two defeats.
A sign things would go wrong for Stoke on a pivotal afternoon arrived around an hour before kick-off when power was lost.
It remained out for almost an hour, delaying kick-off and leaving thousands of fans outside the stadium because the turnstiles could not be operated.
A week after some fans confronted his team, who had just been beaten 5-1 by Tottenham, at Stoke station, Hughes may have feared a growing irritation among supporters again before the game finally started.
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