Leaky Hammers are ideal visitors
WHAT do you give Southampton, the team without a Premier League home goal since early April?
The unfortunate punchline is Slaven Bilic’s West Ham, who have now conceded 91 goals in their last 50 Premier League games and were once again hospitable visitors.
For Mauricio Pellegrino, this was a first victory in English football and brought an end to a run of six goalless home games for Southampton. It was also a positive way to end a week in which the Chinese investor Jisheng Gao purchased 80 per cent of the club in a long-awaited takeover.
Forty-four minutes into this game and it appeared Southampton would be celebrating a rout. Two goals up through a Manolo Gabbiadini strike and a Dusan Tadic penalty, the home side were also a man up after a crazed moment of indiscipline from West Ham’s club record signing, Marko Arnautovic.
Bilic did not seek excuses for Arnautovic for the elbow on Jack Stephens. ‘All I can say is that it was very hard for us and a big, massive blow for the team to be down and play with 10 men for the majority of the game. But he’s very talented and everybody knows why we got him.’
West Ham were almost reprieved by a devastating intervention from another summer signing, Javier Hernandez, who struck on the stroke of half-time and then in the 74th minute.
But deep into stoppage time, Pablo Zabaleta pushed Maya Yoshida as the pair contested a header in the penalty area. Charlie Austin stepped up and coolly sent Joe Hart the wrong way.
As Southampton chased the game, Pellegrino took risks as he brought on Shane Long and Austin, signifying a shift from the ponderous approach of Claude Puel last season. Austin added: ‘The manager told me, “Go and get the winner”. It shows we are going to play attacking football and as a striker that is a delight.’
West Ham began last season with five defeats in six but Bilic said: ‘Although I’m very disappointed I’m going to take a lot of positives from how we played.’
SUPER STAT: Since the start of 2015-16, West Ham have conceded more goals from the penalty spot than any other Premier League team (13).
SOUTHAMPTON (4-3-2-1): Forster 5.5; Soares 6, Yoshida 6.5, Stephens 6, Bertrand 5.5; Davis 7 (Long 80min), Romeu 7, Lemina 6 (Ward-Prowse 65, 6.5); Tadic 7, Redmond 7.5; Gabbiadini 8 (Austin 80). Subs not used: McCarthy, Boufal, Bednarek, McQueen.
Scorers: Gabbiadini 11, Tadic 38 pen, Austin 90 pen. Booked: Tadic. Manager: Mauricio Pellegrino 7. WEST HAM UNITED (4-2-3-1): Hart 6; Zabaleta 5, Ogbonna 5, Fonte 4.5, Cresswell 6; Noble 6, Rice 7 (Obiang 76); Antonio 7.5 (Sakho 68, 6.5), Ayew 4 (Fernandes 68, 6), Arnautovic 3; Hernandez 8.5. Subs not used: Adrian, Byram, Masuaku. Scorer: Hernandez 45, 74. Booked: Zabaleta. Sent off: Arnautovic. Manager: Slaven Bilic 5.5. Man of the match: Javier Hernandez. Referee: Lee Mason 7. Attendance: 31,424.