WE’LL GO FOR THE JUGULAR Hughes calls on his Saints to make most of Hammers anxiety on and off the field in big relegation showdown
MARK HUGHES totted up the sum of all West Ham’s fears – and concluded they are up to their ears in doubt.
Shorn of confidence after three heavy defeats and riddled with angst about crowd control after the nearriot against Burnley three weeks ago, the Hammers are a basket case like a snake charmer’s cobra.
And Hughes takes charge of his first Premier League game as Southampton boss tomorrow knowing the short-cut to victory in a key relegation battle will be the mood in the London Stadium.
If it’s all Bubbles and Knees Up Mother Brown, Saints may have their work cut out to leapfrog the Irons and climb out of the bottom three. But if events on the pitch lead to more unrest among the East Enders’ militant tendency, Hughes believes he can chart a route to safety.
West Ham are just a place and two points above Southampton and Hughes said: “They obviously have their own problems to deal with in their home games.
“We have to take the opportunity, if we can, to put the pressure on them and affect the atmosphere in the ground as against Burnley, where it had a detrimental effect on the team.
“There seems to be a little bit of anxiety surrounding the club and that can be a negative. It certainly seems to have affected them in the last game. It’s important we try and affect the confidence of their group.
“At this stage of the season, late in the day and at the business end, you can damage their prospects and enhance your own.”
Hughes (above, clashing with Marko Arnautovic) has ‘previous’ with West Ham going back to his playing days, when Manchester United were denied the title in pie-and-mash heartlands in 1992 and 1995. But like others, he has noted a vast difference between the intimidation of Upton Park’s old Chicken Run and the more distant noise at the new ground.
He said: “There is clearly a different atmosphere now – Upton Park was one of my favourite grounds, despite various trials and tribulations there as a player, because it was a real football stadium with the crowd right on top of you, and they used to make their feelings quite well known.
“I went there as a Man United player and with Chelsea, and they took exception sometimes when we were in town, but I used to really enjoy that.
“It’s a different experience now. It’s not a football stadium as such and they have had to make compromises.
“As a manager, there is a huge distance from the bench to the pitch, you keep looking back to see where your subs are. At times the distances do seem a little bit extreme.
“We have games coming up against sides from the top end and, when you look at them in isolation, they are difficult... but they are no more difficult than this one. West Ham away is never an easy game to negotiate, but for the most part it’s about which team is more confident in what they are doing and can hold their nerve.
“If we’re able to do that, we will be able to affect them adversely.”
Leading Saints to dry land, after the banality of Mauricio Pellegrino’s reign left them needing lifeboats, would give Hughes the extra satisfaction of great escapes as player and manager at the club.
Back in 1999, when Latvian striker Marian Pahars and mercurial legend Matt Le Tissier were the big cheeses in the dairy, they scrambled above the dotted line on the last day of term.
Hughes has eight games to procure another feat of escapology, saying: “There are similarities with 1999. It was viewed as a great escape then and I don’t think too many people gave us much chance.
“Maybe people don’t feel the current team has one of the strongest opportunities to finish outside the bottom three, but we’ll have something to say about that.”
Striker Charlie Austin, out since December with a torn hamstring, could return to the squad and Hughes confirmed: “We’re hopeful.”