Southampton Match Preview

West Ham United’s Carabao Cup first-round it win over Portsmouth seventeen days ago currently stands as the only success the club have had in the 2026/27 season. It has to be said though, we are only three games in at this point.

Nuno Espírito Santo will be hoping to change that when they travel to Southampton for an all Sky Bet Championship second-round Southern section tie tonight.

The Hammers would have had Saints’ fans cheering them on in the first-round, but they won’t be too pleased if the roles are reversed here.

Season 2020/21 was when the East London outfit first qualified for European competition under David Moyes and they were involved for three consecutive campaigns, meaning that thoughts of this competition didn’t enter the players’ minds until the third-round.

However, Moyes left Stratford for a second time in May 2024 after the team had failed to make it four on the bounce and in the two following terms, involvement at this stage of this particular domestic cup competition was back on the club’s agenda. Julen Lopetegui steered the team to an unconvincing 1-0 win at home to then fellow top-flight side AFC Bournemouth which then led to a 5-1 trouncing against Liverpool at Anfield.

There was to be more woe when Graham Potter had taken over the hotseat from Lopetegui, as the club embarrassingly handed Wolverhampton Wanderers a first success last term by losing 3-2 at Molineux. Let’s hope memories from that night are banished and ensure that a pla/ce in the draw for the next stage is booked.

It is fair to say that both the Hammers and the Saints had relatively comfortable passages through to this stage, despite the Irons surviving something of a scare against their fellow Championship opponents.

Neither team holds an advantage in terms of preparation ahead of this game but, Tonda Eckert’s men do have momentum behind them, as they beat Stoke City 3-1 here just three days ago, whereas Espírito Santo’s side will be hoping to atone for their performance in the 2-1 home defeat by Charlton Athletic.

West Ham’s Head-Coach named a strong side against John Mousinho’s men and he could do so again here. Joël Veltman may be handed his full debut and take the place of either Max Kilman or Konstantinos Mavropanos in defence, while Keiber Lamadrid was on the bench for Saturday’s encounter and may be included from the start on the South Coast. It was felt that Divine Mukasa was fit and ready to be involved at the weekend and to be fair, the youngster showed just why the Portuguese brought him back to the club on loan with an impressive appearance from the bench. The 19-year-old will be hopeful of a full debut tonight.

Several of the club’s other youngsters are set to be part of the matchday squad but one that Espírito Santo will be unable to call on is Luis Brown, as it was announced on Monday that the defender has completed a loan move to Enterprise National League South outfit Braintree Town until early January.

Divin Mubama has joined Eckert’s side on a season-long loan from Manchester City and after helping himself to a debut goal against the Potters on Saturday, he is hoping to be involved again, while Flynn Downes may also feature against his boyhood club and former employers.

The match is a 7:45pm kick-off with live coverage available via Sky Sports+ beginning at 7:30pm. The referee is Ruebyn Ricardo.