West Ham pay heavy penalty as Saints finally end goal drought
Two teams who had failed to hit the net on the Premier League’s opening weekend served up a five-goal farrago of errors, idiocy and instinct at St Mary’s yesterday. Southampton, in fact, had not managed to score at home in their previous six games, but lamentable defending by West Ham handed them a two-goal lead, and a reckless red-card offence by Marko Arnautovic gave them a man advantage.
Two goals from Javier Hernandez drew West Ham level and showed why Slaven Bilic paid Bayer Leverkusen £16million to secure the Mexico and former Manchester United striker’s services. But Southampton substitute Charlie Austin broke East London hearts with an injury-time winner from the penalty spot.
West Ham might have known it was to be one of those afternoons when Winston Reid was ruled out with a calf injury during the pre-match warm-up, and their defence was at fault after 11 minutes when Nathan Redmond was allowed too much time to play Manolo Gabbiadini in on the left of the penalty area. He drove the ball low across Joe Hart before former Saints captain Jose Fonte could lumber across to stop him.
Arnautovic shot narrowly wide and saw a diving header saved by Fraser Forster before he was laid out by the elbow of Mario Lemina. That may have riled the Austrian into an ugly challenge on Jack Stephens after 33 minutes, leading with his elbow and catching the Saints defender in the neck. Arnautovic was the only person shocked when referee Lee Mason produced a red card.
Five minutes later, West Ham were 2-0 behind. Steven Davis was brought down just inside the area by a combination of Fonte and Reid’s replacement, Angelo Ogbonna. It was another easy decision for Mr Mason, but Tadic made hard work of the penalty, shooting in off Hart’s legs.
Most would have bet on a West Ham collapse, but instead they halved the deficit when the excellent Michail Antonio squirmed past Oriol Romeu and shot hard and low with his left foot. Forster could only parry and Hernandez was on to the rebound to score.
And Hernadez levelled in the 74th minute when substitute Diafra Sakho’s header from Aaron Cresswell’s cross came back off Forster and the crossbar.
A draw seemed certain until Pablo Zabaleta pushed Maya Yoshida as he went for a James Ward-Prowse cross, and Austin rolled in from the spot.
“When the referee makes a decision for you, as in this case, you are happy,” Saints manager Mauricio Pellegrino said. “When it’s against you, you suffer.”
West Ham manager Slaven Bilic said: “Of course we are gutted that we lost a point, but we gained a lot of things. We showed character and quality to play with 10 men for such a long time.” Southampton (4-2-3-1): Forster 5; Cedric 5, Stephens 7, Yoshida 6, Bertrand 6; Lemina 5 (Ward-Prowse 65, 6), Romeu 6; Tadic 6, Davis 7 (Long 80), Redmond 6; Gabbiadini 6 (Austin 80). Subs not used: McCarthy (g), Boufal, Bednarek, McQueen. Booked: Tadic. West Ham United (4-2-3-1): Hart 6; Zabaleta 5, Fonte 5, Ogbonna 5, Cresswell 6; Rice 6 (Obiang 76), Noble 6; Antonio 8 (Sakho 68, 7), Ayew 6 (Fernandes 68, 5), Arnautovic 2; Hernandez 8. Subs not used: Adrian (g), Byram, Masuaku. Booked: Zabaleta; Sent off: Arnautovic. Referee: Lee Maso