Hammers Deliver Knockout Punch To Saints

West Ham United had already fallen victim to the “new manager bounce” when they lost 3-1 at newly-promoted Leicester City at the start of December. They were determined not to do the same on Boxing Day when they travelled to St Mary’s to face Southampton. Well, they didn’t, as they beat the Saints 1-0.

Julen Lopetegui’s starting line-up showed two changes from the team that drew with Brighton and Hove Albion five days earlier, as Carlos Soler replaced the suspended Lucas Paquetá, while Guido Rodríguez was preferred to Edson Álvarez who dropped to the bench. Konstantinos Mavropanos was fit enough to retain his place despite concerns over his fitness. Youngster Luis Guilherme was once again included in the matchday squad.

Flynn Downes was named in the starting line-up by Ivan Jurić, while loanee Maxwel Cornet didn’t feature in the matchday squad.

The Hammers were looking for a ninth win of 2024 and you would have thought that against a club that only has six points to its name this season, that would be fairly routine, but they had a new manager to impress and that certainly wasn’t the case.

Having said that, the visitors really should have been in front early on when Soler was on the end of a cross from Aaron Wan-Bissaka and struck a powerful shot against the crossbar.

Lopetegui was dealt a blow with nineteen minutes gone when Max Kilman went down injured. After a lengthy amount of treatment, he then tried to carry on but it clearly wasn’t going to work, and the Spaniard was forced into his first substitution so he was replaced by Jean-Clair Todibo.

Then, the home side were in control for large periods of the half but weren’t able to benefit from any of the opportunities created.

Paul Onuachu sent a header narrowly wide of the post, before bringing a excellent save out of Łukasz Fabiański.

The Pole had to be alert again when Mateus Fernandes went close but fortunately, the former Arsenal and Swansea City stopper thwarted him. He also made another spectacular save from Kyle Walker-Peters.

On thirty six minutes, West Ham suffered more injury woe, as Fabiański sustained a head injury and after a further seven-minute delay, Alphonse Areola stepped into the breach.

The Frenchman also had to make a save from the former Tottenham Hotspur defender who seemed desperate to make the breakthrough.

New Saints’ Head-Coach Jurić saw his side attempt to quell the threat of visiting Captain Jarrod Bowen and it was proving successful when firstly he missed the target completely, before his second go was blocked by Jan Bednarek.

Ten minutes of stoppage time were added to the end of the half due to the injuries. This gave Mohammed Kudus time to cross the ball but Wan-Bissaka unfortunately volleyed wide.

Referee Lewis Smith brought the first-half to a close and although the bottom side had done well to keep it goalless at the break, surely the superiority from the visitors would shine through sooner or later.

Lopetegui decided to make another change at the break, bringing on Álvarez in place of Soler.

There was a change in momentum as the teams came out for the second-half, with the Irons determined to get the better of their hosts and more chances going in the direction of Aaron Ramsdale’s goal.

The visitors could have been down to ten men when Rodríguez was initially given a straight red card by Smith for a sliding challenge. However, VAR saved the midfielder as replays showed that his studs were on the ground.

Having survived that scare, things started to look up for Lopetegui’s side as they went ahead just before the hour mark. Yukinari Sugawara gave away a corner and with the help of Tomáš Souček and Niclas Füllkrug, Bowen took advantage of some hesitation from Ramsdale and put the ball into the net.

Eight minutes later, two more changes entered the fray for the East Londoners, as Rodríguez and Füllkrug were withdrawn for Aaron Cresswell and Crysencio Summerville.

Summerville definitely made an impact as he almost extended West Ham’s advantage but his effort went just wide of the target.

Onuachu was the biggest threat for the Saints and the Nigerian had three further chances but thankfully for those in the away end, he couldn’t make them count.

Up the other end, both Kudus and Bowen tried their luck but to no avail.

It was becoming clear that the home faithful would not see a goal after Fernandes had sent a shot horribly wide in the closing stages.

Lopetegui made use of his final change with two minutes of normal time to play, as Vladimír Coufal took the place of Emmerson Palmieri.

Seven minutes of stoppage time were signalled but even with that amount of time added on, the Hammers still looked comfortable.

Having moved onto twenty three points, West Ham hope to add more points to their current tally on Sunday when they attempt to finally end Liverpool’s unbeaten Premier League away record.