West Ham’s nine-match unbeaten Championship run ended with a 3-2 defeat by Southampton, where three first-half goals left the hosts with too much to recover. It was a wet, windy afternoon in East London, and the Hammers lost the match in the opening 34 minutes. The pattern was a familiar one. West Ham were the division’s top scorers coming in, with 29 shots, the most of any team in a single Championship match this season, and 13 on target. They still lost, because they had already handed the game away.
Southampton took the lead inside two minutes after Konstantinos Mavropanos and Divine Mukasa stood back and admired as Leo Scienza danced into the penalty area. The shot was saved, but Mads Hermansen parried it out to Kuryu Matsuki, who tucked away the rebound. Nine minutes later James Bree doubled the lead. West Ham were two down in 11 minutes, with the opposition barely breaking a sweat.
Kyle Walker-Peters pulled one back in the 24th minute, with Mukasa providing the assist. It was his first goal of the season, and it should have been the start of a fightback. Instead, Hermansen again parried a shot into the path of Lewis Dobbin in the 34th minute, and it was 3-1. West Ham spent the rest of the afternoon chasing the game.
Nuno Espírito Santo’s own diagnosis was telling. He pointed to “hesitation, bouncing balls,” and too many second and third phases for Southampton to feast on. Pressed on why his side started slowly again, he went further: “It’s not about organization, it’s about determination and clearing the ball out of our box.”
We started poor, we were soft – Nuno Espirito Santo
That explanation does not fully hold up. West Ham have a long record of this. They conceded early in the Carabao Cup tie at St Mary’s in August, when Scienza put Southampton ahead in the 10th minute, and Nuno admitted afterwards that his side did not start very well. After a home defeat to Newcastle in May, he conceded “We started poor, we were soft.”
Souček acknowledged the pattern on Saturday: “It happened a few times to us, and it’s always difficult in the league to beat a team when you are losing.”
Walker-Peters was more blunt: “I don’t think we started the game well enough.”
When the same problem keeps recurring, a manager can’t call it a one-off or a lack of determination. Nuno’s reference to hesitation is a good description of Max Kilman’s afternoon. He looked confused from the opening minutes and never seemed to understand what Southampton were doing to his back line. Matsuki, Scienza, Dobbin and Finn Azaz kept finding space around him, and his body language, with the shrugs, the glances toward his teammates and the indecision in his positioning, suggested a defender who had not been told what to expect. At one point he even engaged in a shouting match with Jarrod Bowen. He won his tackles, but the damage was usually done before he made them. Nuno says organization was not the problem, but watching Kilman, it was hard to agree.
Nuno introduced Ollie Scarles for Morato at half-time, then brought on Souček and Pablo in the 63rd minute. Taking off Morato was fair enough, since he had been exposed. The 63rd-minute changes were harder to defend. Mukasa and Manor Solomon were the two players making things happen, with an assist and eight key passes between them by then, and they were the ones who came off while West Ham chased a two-goal deficit. Without them, Bowen was the only forward creating chances. Joël Piroe and Edvin Austbø arrived on 74 minutes, and neither had any impact in the closing stages.
In fairness, Souček’s goal came from the bench: he scored West Ham’s second goal in the 90+3 minute. It was the 50th of his West Ham career, and he said he would have preferred to celebrate it “in a better way.” But a stoppage-time goal after a collapse is too little, too late, and a manager with this much attacking quality on the pitch should not need a late substitute to rescue the game.
The mood turned sour at the end. Players surrounded the referee after the final whistle, upset that a late corner never came. Nuno said it was not just about that moment: “All of the game the boys were really frustrated with the referee, soft fouls and the waste of time from Southampton.” Souček said he told the official it was “not fair to football,” because “everyone loves this last-minute action.”
This is a squad good enough to create chances at will, and it keeps spotting opponents with bad performances to start matches. Souček said the team has to “score first,” because “when we score first we are ready to win the game.” The better fix is not to concede first.
Southampton, who were deducted four points at the start of the season, are now just two points behind West Ham. Nuno has a week to fix a problem that has followed them for months, and while he acknowledges it’s a problem, he’s done very little to correct it.
West Ham Player Ratings
Mads Hermansen – 5: Made four saves, but twice pushed shots into the danger area and was punished both times.
Kyle Walker-Peters – 6: Scored his first goal of the season and was a threat going forward, but was poor getting back and protecting the box. Left the pitch on 74 minutes.
Konstantinos Mavropanos – 5: Part of the pair who watched Scienza waltz into the box for the first goal. Steadier afterwards, but the early lapse set the tone.
Maximilian Kilman – 4.5: Won his tackles, but looked lost and unprepared for what Southampton brought, and never got to grips with the movement in front of him.
Morato – 4.5: Struggled badly and was taken off at half-time.
Jarrod Bowen – 7.5: Created four chances and was West Ham’s most consistent threat.
Divine Mukasa – 7: Provided the assist for Walker-Peters and kept probing, but was part of the defensive lapse on the opener and was taken off just after the hour.
Arne Engels – 6: Poor corners today, but continued to be effective with possession and intercepting passes.
Manor Solomon – 6.5: Five chances created in 63 minutes, but taken off before he could do more.
Taty Castellanos – 5: Couldn’t finish chances and looked a step slow despite being credited with an assist.
Mohamadou Kanté – 6: Had one key pass in 74 minutes, missed a point-blank opportunity to score.
Substitutes
Ollie Scarles – 6.5: Steady on the left side after the break with three tackles, but his crosses were ineffective.
Tomáš Souček – 7.5: Scored his 50th West Ham goal and gave the club some much-needed energy.
Pablo – 6: Two key passes in 27 minutes, but nothing decisive.
Joël Piroe – 5.5 : Failed to create disruption in the box and never really seemed in the right place to make a difference.
Edvin Austbø – 5.5: Should have been subbed in sooner; with Southampton slowing down in the second half, his speed could have made a difference.
Manager – Nuno Espírito Santo – 4: The same early collapse again, a defence that looked unprepared, and substitutions that removed the two most creative players when the team needed them most.
Man of the Match: Daniel Peretz (Southampton)
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