Ralph Hasenhuttl’s effect on Southampton has been significant. He has introduced intensity and belief. Even a little bit of luck. But sometimes you just have to hold your hands up and say you were beaten by the better team.
The Austrian’s side lost to a superior, more streetwise opponent, who won for the second time at St Mary’s.
It was an impressive victory from an injury-ravaged West Ham, and aside from the nous of Manuel Pellegrini, much of the credit must go to Lukasz Fabianski, Declan Rice and two-goal Felipe Anderson.
Anderson, West Ham’s only outfield player to start every game, hit his seventh and eighth Premier League goals to steer West Ham to a fifth win in six matches.
The visitors were also indebted to another summer buy, with the £8million they paid Swansea for Fabianski one of the smartest bits of business in recent history.
He hasn’t missed a minute this season and the Pole was superb here, denying Southampton a certain opener twice before Nathan Redmond finally scored a contentious opener. He is brave, positionally solid and he makes some superb saves.
He fully deserved the frequent chants of: ‘Super, super Fab’ from a boisterous away support.
It was a game of ebbs and flows. Southampton started like a train with Nathan Redmond and Danny Ings going close inside the first three minutes.
Steadily, West Ham began to assert themselves. They were big at the back and squeezed the hosts. Hasenhuttl likes to use his wing backs to launch attacks, but Jan Valery and Matt Targett were preoccupied with protecting their flanks rather than getting forward.
With mentor Mark Noble on the bench, Rice controlled midfield on the ground where he made his first Premier League start.
‘Sign him up, sign him up, sign him up,’ the West Ham fans sang of the 19-year-old, who has 18 months left on his current contract.
On this evidence, they should do just that. He is one of those players who appear to have all the time in the world on the ball, capable of spreading the ball wide and short. He never puts a team-mate in danger, but when his side is up against it, he harries and chases.
Under Mark Hughes, Southampton struggled to find a suitable system. They struggled full stop, with Hughes winning thrice in his 22 games in charge. But under the pragmatic Hasenhuttl, for whom 4-2-2-2 is his favoured formation, Southampton have switched to a 3-4-3.
He was forced into a change with captain Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg suspended. Mario Lemina slotted in central midfield, but could assert himself on the game like the vocal Dane. Three times in the first half Lemina fell asleep on the ball, and each could have cost him team.
But if you don’t put away your chances, you run the risk of being beaten. Grady Diangana and Lucas Perez were guilty of squandering gilt-edged chances and Robert Snodgrass went close from distance before the break.
Southampton were by no means out of it. They have a resilience nowadays, and their heads don’t drop. This was in evidence at the start of a breathless second-half. Lemina’s cross from the right wreaked havoc. The ball fell to Armstrong, with Romeu firing in the first shot. It fell to Redmond, who shot. Fabianski saved. Romeu shot again. Fabianski saved again.
And then Redmond, who was being played onside by Diangana, was instrumental in bundling it home. West Ham thought it was with a hand, but the goal stood. 168 seconds later they were level.
Felipe Anderson struck a beauty from the edge of the area, controlling Lemina’s clearing header and beating McCarthy. Armstrong tested Fabianski from distance, and then Anderson struck again.
On the break, former Saint Michail Antonio looked up and fired a crisp pass behind Southampton’s defence, the Brazilian controlled the ball twice before beating McCarthy. ‘Oh when the Saints go 2-1 down!’ the away fans jeered. Dressed in black, Hasenhuttl patrolled his technical area as his side pushed for an equaliser.
Targett’s cross eluded substitute Shane Long, and Lemina was denied by Fabianski. They huffed and they puffed, but the house did not blow down.
After his opening defeat at Cardiff, Hasenhuttl said: ‘I always said either we win or we learn and today we learned.’ While this performance was much improved, he will think the same this evening.