West Ham's Fabianski takes the win but Jarrod Bowen sinks Southampton | first division

If we consider that Southampton is doomed (remember that no club has ever stayed in the area), first division With such a low points tally at this stage of the season, then you have to look for small positives wherever possible for the beleaguered St Mary's regulars. So while this defeat to West Ham extended the hosts' winless league run to eight games, there was at least some evidence that the Ivan Juric era could offer new hope; If not for this campaign, then beyond.

In the first half alone, Southampton attempted 11 shots, more than they had managed in the previous nine games. The concern remains that they failed to score with any of them, prompting Juric to urge his players to “be much more clinical and much more, as the Italians say, bastards.”

The defeat was tough in a match that was only resolved with a close-range push from Jarrod Bowen, further easing the pressure on Julen Lopetegui, who came close to losing his job a few weeks ago. He praised his players for being “resilient and capable of suffering as a team to win” a game with fine margins.

West Ham are unbeaten in four games, while safety remains a distant dream for Southampton.

The level of stylistic agitation that Juric imposes on his troops is enormous. Take, for example, Aaron Ramsdale. Since moving to the south coast in the summer, the goalkeeper was only allowed to use delicate wedges or a putter to move the ball. Within two minutes of starting the game, he had thrown it as high as possible no less than four times. The booming driver is back.

If any Southampton fan had been unable to stomach Martin's aesthetically pleasing but wildly dangerous habit of daintily hitting the ball from behind, Juric seems the ideal antidote, albeit with the important caveat that it will almost certainly have no bearing on survival. of the club in the Premier League.

With this early evidence, we may see a lot more of Paul Onuachu. After spending last season scoring goals on loan at Trabzonspor, the 6ft 7in Nigerian striker looks like the ideal target for the way his new manager wants to do things – that is, getting the ball into the box for the big guy puts it in. or pumping it for a long time to make it last.

His presence caused regular problems for the West Ham defence, coming closer in the first half when his header from Kyle Walker-Peters' cross was deflected full length by Lukasz Fabianski. This would be one of the goalkeeper's last interventions. A sickening head collision with Nathan Wood when clearing a corner soon after caused a lengthy delay, and Fabianski left the field on a stretcher in a neck brace.

Lopetegui later confirmed that the veteran goalkeeper was conscious and speaking in the dressing room, but West Ham also had to deal with the premature departures of Maximilian Kilman and Carlos Soler through injury.

Much of the match only strengthened the argument that Lopetegui needs a new striker in the January transfer window, with Niclas Füllkrug largely ineffective. But the German managed to tip Tomas Soucek's header into the path of Bowen for the West Ham captain to fire home from a couple of yards just before the hour mark.

Without video refereeing, the visitors would have been down to 10 men by then after Guido Rodríguez was red-carded for a strong, if somewhat reckless, tackle on Walker-Peters. A more detailed view of the incident on the pitch monitor convinced the referee, Lewis Smith, to downgrade his verdict to a yellow card.

Things could have been very different if Carlos Soler's shot in the fourth minute had gone in instead of hitting the crossbar. Instead, the visitors had to survive a nervy final few minutes, with Southampton substitute Tyler Dibling turning slightly in stoppage time and Onuachu sending one of countless headers wide.

“It's a shame we lost the game when we played well,” Juric said. “They are much more competitive than before. There is a lot of potential for improvement.

“I am very satisfied with the whole match. “I think they played a good 90 or 100 minutes, losing details and lacking confidence to score.”