West Ham's Fabianski carried off but Jarrod Bowen sinks Southampton
Ben Bloom at St Mary's Stadium
Date published: Thu 26 Dec 2024 17.19 GMT

If we take the view that Southampton are doomed as a reminder, no club has ever stayed in the Premier League with such a lowly points tally at this stage of the season then small positives must be sought wherever possible for the beleaguered regulars at St Mary's. So while this defeat by West Ham extended the hosts' winless league streak to eight games, there was at least some evidence that the Ivan Juric era might offer fresh hope; if not for this campaign then beyond.

In the first half alone Southampton attempted 11 shots, more than they had managed in the entirety of their previous nine matches. That they failed to score with any of them remains the concern, prompting Juric to urge his players to "be much more clinical and much more, like Italians say, bastards".

Defeat was harsh in a match settled only by Jarrod Bowen's close-range prod, which further eases pressure on Julen Lopetegui, who was close to losing his job a few weeks ago. He praised his players for being "resilient and able to suffer as a team to win" a game of fine margins.

West Ham are now four games unbeaten, while safety remains a distant dream for Southampton.

The level of stylistic upheaval tasked by Juric of his troops is wholesale. Take, for example, Aaron Ramsdale. Since moving to the south coast in the summer, the goalkeeper had been allowed only to use dainty wedges or a putter to move the ball. Within two minutes of this match kicking off, he had lumped it as far upfield as possible no fewer than four times. The booming driver is back.

If any Southampton fan had been unable to stomach Martin's aesthetically pleasing but heart-stoppingly hazardous habit of delicately knocking the ball about from the back, Juric seems the ideal antidote, albeit with the hefty caveat that it is almost certain to have no bearing on the club's Premier League survival.

On this early evidence, we may see plenty more of Paul Onuachu. After spending last season banging in goals on loan at Trabzonspor, the 6ft 7in Nigeria striker appears the ideal target man for the way his new manager wants to do things - namely, knocking the ball into the box for the big lad to get his head on it or pumping it long for him to hold up.

His presence caused regular problems for the West Ham defence, going closest in the first half when his header from a Kyle Walker-Peters cross was clawed out by a full-stretch Lukasz Fabianski. That was to prove one of the goalkeeper's final involvements. A sickening head collision with Nathan Wood when punching clear a corner soon after caused a prolonged delay, and Fabianski left the field on a stretcher wearing a neck brace.

Lopetegui later confirmed the veteran keeper was conscious and talking in the changing room, but West Ham also had to cope with the premature departures of Maximilian Kilman and Carlos Soler through injury.

Much of the match only strengthened the argument that Lopetegui requires a new forward in the January transfer window, with Niclas Fullkrug largely ineffective. But the German did manage to flick Tomas Soucek's header into the path of Bowen for the West Ham captain to poke home from a couple of yards just before the hour.

Without the video assistant referee, the visitors would have been down to 10 men by then after Guido Rodriguez had been shown a straight red card for a strong, if somewhat reckless, challenge on Walker-Peters. Further viewing of the incident on the pitchside monitor convinced the referee, Lewis Smith, to downgrade his verdict to a yellow card.

Things might have been very different had Carlos Soler's fourth-minute shot gone in rather than crashing against the bar. Instead, the visitors had to survive a nervy final few minutes, with the Southampton substitute Tyler Dibling curling just over in injury time and Onuachu sending one of countless headers wide.

"It's a pity that we lose the game when we played well," said Juric. "They are much more competitive than before. There is lots of potential for improvement.

"I am very satisfied with the whole game. I think they did a good 90 or 100 minutes, missing the details and missing confidence to score."

Daily Mail: Player ratings and match facts
SOUTHAMPTON (3-4-1-2): Ramsdale 6; Harwood-Bellis 6, Bednarek 6, Wood 6; Sugawara 5.5 (Bree 61, 6), Downes 5 (Aribo 61, 5.5), Ugochukwu 5 (Lallana 87), Walker-Peters 7 (Manning 86); Fernandes 6 (Dibling 73); Armstrong 5.5 (Sulemana 73), Onuachu 6.5.
Subs: Archer, Fraser, McCarthy.
Booked: Wood
Manager: Ivan Juric: 6
WEST HAM (4-3-3): Fabianski 6.5 (Areola 36, 6.5); Wan-Bissaka 7.5, Mavropanos 7, Kilman 6 (Todibo 19, 7), Emerson 7 (Coufal 88); Soucek 7, Rodriguez 6 (Cresswell 68, 6), Soler 5 (Alvarez 46, 6.5); Kudus 6.5, Fullkrug 6 (Summerville 68), Bowen 7.
Subs: Ings, Irving, Guilherme.
Booked: Soucek, Rodriguez
Manager: Julen Lopetegui 6
Referee: Lewis Smith 5
Att: 31,059
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