Felipe Anderson with clinical performance to bring Hassenhuttl back down to earth

Southampton 1-2 West Ham

West Ham ran out winners at St. Mary’s after a magical performance from Felipe Anderson, giving Southampton and Ralph  Hassenhuttl a small reality check after a great week for the south coast club.

Southampton were without captain and midfield maestro Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg whilst the away side had such injury problems they could not name a full bench for the game.

The opening ten minutes belonged to the home side who put constant pressure on the West Ham back line. Michail Antonio was caught on the ball by Stuart Armstrong, who failed to capitalise and create a real opportunity.

The first chance of the game was forged by Southampton. Danny Ings tried to wiggle his way through the defence but his toe poke shot went wide of the front post. West Ham duly responded, launching one of their many counter attacks of the game with Lucas Perez skewing a golden opportunity wide of the post from the penalty spot.

The first-half offered little in terms of quality in front of goal with both sides failing to find the final pass or a shot. Robert Snodgrass came closest as he drifted in from the right to curl a ball past the post which Alex McCarthy confidently saw wide.

The second half took just five minutes to see the first goal, a flurry of ricochets and a number of potential calls for offside fell in favour of Southampton. Fabianski made two excellent saves, most notably from Oriol Romeu, for the ball to squeeze to Nathan Redmond who forced Angelo Ogbonna to squeeze the ball over his own line. Southampton took the lead, if only for a few seconds.

The visitors immediately put pressure on the Southampton back line, Maya Yoshida clearing the ball to the edge of his own area, where it fell to the mercurial Felipe Anderson, who lashed it in with venom at the front post. Questions may be asked of McCarthy’s positioning in the Southampton net, but the strike was too powerful for him to recover.

The game was completely turned on it’s head on the hour mark. A breakaway from a Southampton corner saw Antonio stride down the left hand side to slide Anderson in down the centre of the goal. The Brazilian finished with aplomb high into the net giving McCarthy very little chance with this one.

Both sides made several changes as Pellegrini opted to shore up the midfield whilst Ralph Hassenhuttl went for the jugular, bringing on Shane Long, Charlie Austin and Mohamed Elynoussi in the hope of finding an equaliser that rarely looked like coming.

Southampton worked tirelessly as the impressive Stuart Armstrong attempted to pull the strings in midfield, but a rusty Shane Long and tired legs throughout meant the final ball was often lacking.

West Ham saw the final few minutes out with relative comfort, to earn their 8th win of the season and propel them up to 9th in the Premier League, just five points off of Manchester United.

Southampton will welcome Manchester City at St Mary’s on Sunday, whilst West Ham travel to Burnley at the weekend, hoping to continue their fine form. If Felipe Anderson can prove to be as lethal as he was today, talk of Europe may be on the edge of West Ham tongues come 2019.