West Ham 2-3 Southampton 
by Paul Donovan
at the London Stadium

THE West Ham team looked like it had had too much Christmas pudding, as its recent slump continued with a defeat to Southampton at the London Stadium on Boxing Day.  

Hammers manager David Moyes criticised “the low energy” display of his side in the first half, though he felt the team played well enough in the second half to “get back in it, if not win.” 

Low energy was putting it kindly, as West Ham strolled through the first half as if in some sort of sleep-walking daze. 

The game was only seven minutes old, when a decisive sweeping Southampton move involving James Ward-Prowse and Kyle Walker-Peters ended with Mohamed Elyounoussi striking home sweetly, from just outside the penalty box.  

Elyounoussi was almost in again when Nathan Redmond picked out his run into the box with a nicely weighted through ball. The striker struck the chance, which was easier than the earlier one, tamely into Hammers keeper Lukasz Fabianski’s hands. 

West Ham’s best effort came just before half time when Nikola Vlasic, running from deep, forced a save from Fraser Forster. 

The introduction of substitute Michail Antonio at half time brought much needed energy and urgency into the West Ham play. The half was just three minutes in, when Craig Dawson headed on a Jarrod Bowen corner for Antonio to head home. 

West Ham piled on the pressure, seeing a Declan Rice shot skim just wide. 

However, it was against the run of play that Southampton regained the lead, Craig Dawson being adjudged to have upended Armando Broja in the box. James Ward-Prowse duly dispatched the penalty. 

It was not long though before West Ham were back level, when a cross-field ball from Tomas Soucek was sent in by Bowen for Said Benrahma to ram home. 

The home side, though, relapsed again, giving away a needless free-kick, which saw Jan Bednarek get in front of the West Ham defenders to secure three points for the Saints. 

A downbeat Moyes hoped that the result could be put down to an off day, but admitted his side had had a few of those recently. 

“We shouldn’t be conceding the goals like we did today,” said Moyes, who added that neither did he did like the goals they conceded at Tottenham in the Carabao Cup earlier in the week. 

The manager admitted he could have changed four or five players at half time given the first half performance. In the event, he only brought on one, rather than three due to the danger of injuries. 

An interesting factor beyond the game was the number of empty seats, indicating there may be a number of unvaccinated fans among the Hammers faithful – Covid vaccination passes had to be shown to gain entry for the game.