Our man at St Mary’s, Stuart James, has been tapping away. Here’s his report on West Ham’s win over Southampton. I’ll leave you with that. Bye!
Nathan Redmond speaks! “I think we still have work to do. We had a few chances. But you can’t give that kind of quality that time on the ball. The run of games in this coming period, it’s rest, recover, play. Maybe we were a little leggy. Managing the game is something we have to look at when we’re winning.”
Another replay of Southampton’s goal appears to show Nathan Redmond used his hands to push the ball over the line. VAR might have ruled it out.
Aaron Cresswell speaks! “I thought we were fantastic. I thought we controlled the game and Feli’s two goals were unbelievable. He’s been fantastic and hopefully that continues. He’s our top goalscorer and our in-form man.”
Declan Rice is asked whether he was lucky not to give away a penalty for a foul on Jan Bednarek just before Felipe Anderson’s winning goal. “He’s gone over too easily,” he says. “I’m not going to just let him run.”
A deserved win for West Ham, even though they had to come back from behind to claim the points. They were the better side throughout and responded well after falling behind to a slightly flukey goal from Nathan Redmond at the start of the second half, with two goals from Felipe Anderson enough for Manuel Pellegrini’s side to bounce back from last Saturday’s defeat to Watford. Anderson has eight goals for the season now and West Ham’s fifth win in six games is enough to take them up to ninth place (they lie below Everton on goal difference). As for Southampton, this was a reminder that they still have plenty of work to do in order to stay up. Ralph Hasenhuttl’s side were outplayed for long spells and remain three points above the bottom three before hosting Manchester City on Sunday. They look in need of an injection of attacking craft and firepower in January.
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Full-time: Southampton 1-2 West Ham
That’s your lot!
90 min+5: There’s still time for Carroll to release Anderson, who sees his shot from the right saved by McCarthy. No hat-trick for the Brazilian, but West Ham are almost there.
90 min+4: Valery’s deep cross only finds Fabianski. That should be it.
90 min+2: West Ham make their final change, Arthur Masuaku replacing Robert Snodgrass.
90 min+1: There will be four added minutes.
90 min: Redmond earns the crowd’s derision with a poor pass on the right of the West Ham area. He ends up conceding a free-kick after tugging Anderson back.
88 min: Carroll causes more bother for Southampton in the air, leading to the ball running through to Anderson. He tries to jab a shot inside McCarthy’s near post with the outside of his right boot, but the goalkeeper makes a sharp stop. Corner to West Ham, who have controlled the last 10 minutes.
87 min: Southampton make their final change, Mohamed Elyounoussi replacing Mario Lemina.
84 min: Michail “Dani Alves” Antonio collects the ball on the right, powers forward, cuts inside and, er, almost hits the corner flag with a left-footed shot from 20n yards.
84 min: Carroll’s won a lot in the air since coming on. GET HIM BACK IN THE ENGLAND SQUAD.
83 min: Bednarek’s booked after blocking off Carroll, a ploy that ends in the two players clashing heads. Ouch.
80 min: Southampton make their second change, Charlie Austin replacing Maya Yoshida.
78 min: Mark Noble replaces Lucas Perez.
75 min: An error from Diop allows Long to nudge a pass to Redmond, who frees Lemina. The midfielder tries to slide a low finish past Fabianski but the goalkeeper pushes it wide. Great save. Not that it matters - the flag’s up for offside against Redmond, so none of this happened.
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72 min: The television cameras have shown that Southampton might have had a penalty for a push on Bednarek by Rice at the corner that led to West Ham’s second goal.
68 min: Anderson goes on a brilliant run down the left, somehow keeping the ball in play before it goes out for a throw, and then he has the presence of mind to pick out Perez in the middle. The Spaniard’s unlucky to see Vestegaard deflect his shot wide with a desperate block. From the resulting corner, Antonio skims a header wide after a spot of head tennis. That was so good from Anderson, though. The ball was glued to his foot as he went on that dribble. I wonder where he ranks when it comes to players outside the top six?
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66 min: Targett picks up the first yellow of the evening after catching Antonio late.
65 min: Fabianski claims Targett’s corner.
64 min: Targett drives a low cross into the middle. Long can’t reach it. Valery wins a corner at the far post.
62 min: Southampton respond to falling behind by bringing on Shane Long for Danny Ings. Moments later West Ham appeal for a penalty, claiming that Vestegaard barged Snodgrass over, but the referee isn’t interested. It looked like Snodgrass ran into the big Dane.
A corner to Southampton on the right. Targett’s delivery is headed away and when Southampton lose possession on the edge of the area, West Ham are able to set off on a lightning break. Antonio leads the charge down the left and he has two men free on the right, with only one Southampton player back. The pass from left to right is executed perfectly and Anderson’s able to take the ball in his stride, advance on McCarthy and lash his second of the night high into Southampton’s net to give West Ham the lead!
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GOAL! Southampton 1-2 West Ham (Anderson, 59 min)
West Ham score from Southampton’s corner! What a turnaround!
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58 min: Armstrong sends a swerving drive towards the left corner from 25 yards. Fabianski dives to his left to push the ball wide for a Southampton corner.
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56 min: Carroll’s first major contribution is to send Romeu flying with a wild hack. Somehow he escapes without a booking.
55 min: West Ham replace the ineffective Grady Diangana with Andy Carroll.
West Ham probe down the left as they attempt to shake that strange goal out of their system. Eventually Felipe Anderson decides to let fly from 25 yards. He strikes the ball cleanly with his right foot and with McCarthy unsighted and slow to commit to his dive, the ball flashes inside his near post! That’s a fine goal from West Ham’s top scorer.
GOAL! Southampton 1-1 West Ham (Anderson, 53 min)
This is a stunning response from the visitors!
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Mario Lemina crosses from the right. West Ham don’t deal with it very well and when the ball drops to the edge of the area, a scuffed shot from Armstrong is blocked and another effort from Romeu runs through to the unmarked Redmond. West Ham want a flag, but it isn’t forthcoming. Redmond turns and shoots. Fabianski makes a brilliant low save, but Romeu’s the first to the rebound and when the ball breaks towards the line, Redmond forces it in, seemingly with his hands! West Ham claim for offside and handball, but the goal stands!
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GOAL! Southampton 1-0 West Ham (Redmond, 50 min)
This is weird.
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48 min: Anderson eventually gets back to his feet.
47 min: Anderson stays down for a while after being flattened by Bednarek. He’s holding the top of his left thigh. West Ham won’t want to lose him.
46 min: Southampton get the second half underway.
Half-time: Southampton 0-0 West Ham
That’s that for now. See you in 15 minutes.
45 min: Perez skips down the right and slides a pass inside to Anderson. He finds Snodgrass, who tries to whip one inside the right post from 20 yards. But it goes wide.
43 min: Antonio has a dig from 25 yards. It hits Diangana and goes behind for a Southampton goal-kick.
40 min: Anderson spins and threads a pass through to Diangana, who’s made a diagonal run, but the winger’s first touch is heavy enough to allow Vestegaard to step in front of him and usher the ball out of play. That kind of game.
38 min: Targett crosses from the left. Ings goes flying at the near post, claiming a push from Diop. Nothing doing.
37 min: Anderson’s free-kick is a complete waste of time.
36 min: Antonio wins a free-kick for West Ham on the right.
35 min: Antonio slips a pass down the right to Diangana. The youngster has loads of space as he enters the Southampton area, but he takes too long to make up his mind and ends up losing possession.
32 min: Fabianski races out of his area to beat Redmond to a pass from Targett.
30 min: A fine, bouncing cross from Cresswell’s headed behind for another West Ham corner. Nothing comes from it, but this is a good spell for West Ham.
29 min: Antonio shows neat footwork to beat two men and burst into the area from the right. His cutback’s cleared.
26 min: Lemina tries to surge through the middle after poor play from Diop allows Southampton to attack, but Rice reads the danger and runs across to mop up efficiently. That’s excellent from the young West Ham midfielder. Lemina would have been free to run through on goal without that intervention from Rice.
23 min: Antonio rumbles through the middle - maybe he’s an inverted full-back in the Guardiola mould - and combines with Perez. The ball comes to Anderson, who fires harmlessly wide from 20 yards.
22 min: Antonio drives a pass through to Perez, setting West Ham off on a dangerous attack. Anderson finds Cresswell on the overlap and the left-back has the composure to cut the ball back to Perez, who’s all alone in the middle of the area. It looks such a certain goal that the West Ham fans are even getting ready to cheer, only for Perez to produce a miserable finish, scuffing hopelessly wide with his left foot.
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20 min: Armstrong tries to bend one from the left of the area. He does not achieve enough bend.
19 min: Snodgrass cuts inside from the right, on to his left foot, and shoots straight at McCarthy from 25 yards. “One thing that Danny Ings doesn’t get nearly enough credit for is how good he is in tight situations,” Kari Tulinius says. “In the first few minutes he chipped the ball delicately between two West Ham players, ran after it and carved out a chance for himself. If Messi had done it, people wouldn’t shut up about it. Well, actually, had he done it he probably would’ve scored. as he’s Messi, but still... Ings is a delightful player.”
17 min: Anderson crosses from the left, but Diangana’s header lacks conviction. “As a pessimistic Saints fan, how long can Saints keep hold of Hasenhuttl?” Duncan Watkins says. “Until Poch goes to Real Madrid?”
14 min: “Coventry, Carroll?” Peter Oh says. “Has a festive fixture’s substitutes bench ever contained a set of names so in tune with the Christmas season? Also, do you think Ralph Hasenhüttl’s hard-pressing approach is sustainable? I mean, how many free beers can the St. Mary’s beverage servers pump out before they succumb to knack and burnout?”
12 min: Antonio, an utter liability at right-back, gives away possession deep on the right. Southampton attack, Targett pressing. Antonio tries to shield the ball from the Southampton attacker, only to get muscled off it. Targett plays the ball inside, but Ogbonna steps in before Redmond can shoot.
11 min: Emails please!
9 min: Diangana wins another corner for West Ham. Snodgrass takes it again. It’s headed away. Cresswell has a pop from long range. Nope.
7 min: This is better from West Ham, Antonio using his power to win a corner on the right. Snodgrass’s corner is headed as far as Anderson, who collects possession on the left of the area. The Brazilian dribbles inside, only to fall over before managing to shoot.
6 min: West Ham look nervy. They could do with a long spell of possession in midfield.
3 min: Southampton mean business. They’re taking every opportunity to have a look at this makeshift West Ham side. Now Ings wriggles into the area from the left, beating Ogbonna, brilliantly, but he runs out of room before poking a shot into the side netting from a tight angle.
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2 min: Southampton break down the left, Armstrong slipping a pass inside Antonio to Targett. Antonio is an obvious weakness at right-back. Targett plays a pass back to Redmond, who clips a shot straight at Fabianski from 20 yards, much to Pep Guardiola’s disgust.
Off we go! West Ham, in their dark blue away strip, get the ball rolling. They’re kicking from left to right in the first half.
Here come the teams! Clapping! Music! Lights! Flames!
Pre-match reading: Egil Ostenstad.
Southampton make one change from the team that beat Huddersfield. Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg is suspended, so Mario Lemina replaces him.
West Ham have so many injuries that they can’t fill a bench which includes two untried youngsters in Conor Coventry and Xande Silva. Manuel Pellegrini is withoutthe likes of Pablo Zabaleta, Fabian Balbuena, Javier Hernandez, Andriy Yarmolenko, Marko Arnautovic and Jack Wilshere, and the Chilean brings in Angelo Ogbonna, Aaron Cresswell, Pedro Obiang, Lucas Perez and Grady Diangana after the defeat to Watford.
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The teams
Southampton: McCarthy; Valery, Bednarek, Vestegaard, Yoshida, Targett; Romeu, Lemina, Armstrong; Redmond, Ings. Subs: Gunn, Ramsay, Stephens, Ward-Prowse, Elyounoussi, Obafemi, Austin.
West Ham: Fabianski; Antonio, Diop, Ogbonna, Cresswell; Rice, Obiang, Snodgrass; Diangana, Perez, Anderson. Subs: Adrian, Masuaku, Coventry, Noble, Silva, Carroll.
Referee: Craig Pawson.
Preamble
Hello. It is, of course, far too soon for Southampton’s board to start congratulating themselves on making a very wise decision when they replaced Mark Hughes with Ralph Hasenhuttl earlier this month. While there are signs of optimism returning at St Mary’s, there’s no point anyone getting carried away just yet. There’s still a relegation dogfight to win, after all, and it could go either way. But with Hughes out the door, it does feel like things are starting to move in the right direction. Hasenhuttl has introduced himself to the city by handing out free beer to supporters, Southampton are scoring again and consecutive wins over Arsenal and Huddersfield have lightened the mood. After the gloom of the Hughes regime, perhaps we can forgive them a celebratory moment or two.
After all they’ll move six points above the bottom three if they can make it three wins in a row tonight. Hasenhuttl, who’s famed for his hard-running philosophy, is already already making a positive impact and his new side will look to make a fast start against West Ham, who don’t tend to do very well on this ground. If Southampton play like they when they beat Arsenal here recently, the man known as the Alpine Klopp will be well on his way to becoming the toast of the town.
Easier said than done, mind you. West Ham recently put a four-game winning run together – it came to an end when they lost to Watford last weekend – and Manuel Pellegrini’s side can go as high as eighth with a win. They have the attacking weapons to cause problems. Yet they also travel to the south coast with a long injury list and remain a work in progress under Pellegrini. As far as Southampton are concerned, this is one of those opportunities struggling sides would do well not to pass up.
Kick-off: 7.45pm GMT.
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