Southampton 1-2 West Ham: Tired looking Saints beaten by Anderson double
By Marc Walker
A tired looking Southampton side fell to a 2-1 defeat to West Ham on Thursday evening after putting in a rather disappointing display.
Nathan Redmond bundled the home side into the lead shortly into the second-half, but a quick-fire double from Felipe Anderson eventually saw the visitors take the three points back to London.
A key absentee for Saints was Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg who was serving a one-match suspension but Ralph Hasenhuttl kept faith with the ten other players that had managed to get two vital wins recently.
With confidence high, the home side started as the better side. Nathan Redmond tested Lukasz Fabianski from range early on before Danny Ings stabbed a shot into the side-netting after showing quick feet inside the box.
From then on though, it was West Ham that took the initiative in the first-half and after a strong spell of pressure, they really should have taken the lead.
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A low cross was cutback to the unmarked Lucas Perez near the penalty spot and a firm connection on his shot would have seen him open the scoring. However, he scuffed his effort and saw the ball roll harmlessly wide.
As the first period came to an end, Saints looked like they needed a boost from their manager after looking a little lost.
Shortly into the second-half, they would gain the lead against the run of play with a rather unusual goal.
Calls for an offside flag from the West Ham defence were waived away and after a goalmouth scramble, Nathan Redmond bundled the ball over line for his second goal in two games.
Despite this though, the Hammers came back with real force and got themselves level just two minutes later.
A corner was cleared to Felipe Anderson on the edge of the area and the Brazilian took a touch before firing a superb strike inside the near post.
He wasn’t done there though and would provide the perfect finish to a lightning-quick counter-attack to give his side the lead on the hour mark.
A Saints corner was cleared and, despite strong penalty appeals after Declan Rice’s challenge on Jan Bednarek, the Hammers broke to see Anderson sweep a shot into the top corner in front of the delighted away supporters.
This proved to be the match-winner as Saints struggled to piece together any meaningful attacks in the closing stages of the game and they now go into Sunday’s clash with Manchester City looking for a reaction.