Jarrod Bowen pounces to earn West Ham victory at Southampton.Photograph: Alex Pantling/Getty Images
If we take the view that Southampton are doomed – and, as a reminder, no club has ever stayed in the Premier League with such a lowly points tally at this stage of the season – then small positives must be sought wherever possible for the unfortunate regulars at St Mary’s.
So, while this defeat to West Ham extended the hosts’ winless streak to eight games, there was at least evidence that the Ivan Juric era might offer some fresh hope; if not for this campaign then beyond.
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The new Southampton manager’s first game at the helm was decided by a close-range prod from Jarrod Bowen just before the hour mark. It meant a result that was somewhat harsh on the home side, who held their own in a finely balanced match that could have swung either way.
As it was, West Ham’s unbeaten run now stands at four games and Southampton failed to score yet again. But tiny shoots are just about visible from the ashes of the Russell Martin era.
Such a sharp shift in footballing style must come as a shock to the system for Juric’s troops. Take, for example, Aaron Ramsdale. Previously, since moving to the south coast in the summer, the goalkeeper had waged war armed solely with a smattering of wedges and a putter. Within two minutes of this match kicking off, he had used both feet to lump the ball as far upfield as possible no fewer than four times. The driver is again allowed out of the club bag.
If any Southampton fan had found themselves unable to stomach any more of Martin’s aesthetically pleasing but heart-stoppingly hazardous habit of delicately knocking the ball about from the back, Juric seems the ideal antidote, albeit with the hefty caveat that it is almost certain to have no bearing on the club’s Premier League status.
On this early evidence, we may see plenty more of the striker Paul Onuachu. After spending last season banging in goals on loan at Trabzonspor, the 6ft 7in Nigerian appears the ideal target man for the way his new manager wants to do things – namely, knocking the ball into the box for the big lad to get his head on it or pumping it long for him to hold up.
His presence caused regular problems for the West Ham defence, going closest just before the half-hour when his header from a Kyle Walker-Peters dinked cross was clawed out by a fully stretched Lukasz Fabianski.
That was to prove one of the goalkeeper’s final involvements. A sickening head collision with Nathan Wood when punching clear a corner soon after caused a prolonged delay, and Fabianski departed on a stretcher wearing a neck brace, to be replaced by Alphonse Areola.
Much of the match only strengthened the argument that West Ham require a new forward in the January transfer window, with Niclas Füllkrug largely ineffective. But the German did manage to flick Tomas Soucek’s header into the path of Bowen, for the West Ham captain to poke in from a couple of yards for the winner.
Without the assistance of the video assistant referee, the visitors would have been down to 10 men by that stage after Guido Rodríguez had been shown a straight red card for a strong, if reckless, challenge on Walker-Peters. Further viewing of the incident on the pitchside monitor convinced the referee, Lewis Smith, to downgrade his verdict to a yellow card upon seeing evidence that the Argentinian had won the ball before crunching into the Southampton wing-back.
Things might have been very different had Carlos Soler’s fourth-minute shot gone in rather than crashing into the crossbar. Instead, the visitors had to weather a nervy final few minutes, with the Southampton substitute Tyler Dibling curling just over in injury time and Onuachu sending one of countless headers wide. A routine scoreline, but a win for West Ham that was necessarily hard fought.