West Ham 3-1 Southampton: Saints are blown away at the London Stadium

Jarrod Bowen opened the scoring for the home side before goals from Sebastien Haller and Michail Antonio cancelled out the away side’s leveller.

The defeat leaves Saints nine points clear of the relegation zone, although Aston Villa have a game in hand.

Manager Ralph Hasenhuttl made two changes to the team that beat Villa for today’s trip to the London Stadium.

Danny Ings trained for only the first time on Friday after nursing a slight muscle injury which is why he started on the bench instead of Michael Obafemi.

Moussa Djenepo was left out of the matchday squad for personal reasons. The winger’s foster mum sadly passed away in Mali last week which led to the 21-year-old returning home.

This meant that Sofiane Boufal was given his first Premier League start since the 1-1 draw with Crystal Palace in December.

The visitors were handed a brief scare when Stuart Armstrong was caught by Aaron Cresswell’s arm during an aerial challenge.

Armstrong had to momentarily leave the pitch to be seen to by Saints’ medical staff, but he was able to come back on moments later.

Saints started to apply some pressure and won a corner in the 14th minute when Ryan Bertrand attempted to put a cross in.

James Ward-Prowse whipped a delivery in, only for the Hammers to clear their lines and counter.

The breakaway ended with Bowen getting a shot away but, luckily for Saints, Ward-Prowse made a last-ditch tackle to block it.

West Ham kept their intensity up and their £22m January signing made up for his earlier miss by rifling a shot past Alex McCarthy just a minute later.

Pablo Fornals provided the assist after sliding his pass in between both Jack Stephens and Jan Bednarek to set Bowen free.

Smelling blood, Michail Antonio teed up Haller with a fine centre but McCarthy was able to match the header with a solid stop.

Saints managed to settle things down and started to enjoy a lot more time on the ball, allowing them to grow into the game.

This eventually led to Obafemi rounding off an excellent team goal in the 31st minute:

The away side countered through Armstrong before he gave it to Ward-Prowse on the overlap.

Saints’ midfielder then cut the ball back to Obafemi inside the area with the striker proceeding to lift it past Lukasz Fabianski and into the roof of the net.

But their joy was short-lived.

Antonio lifted a ball towards the far post which saw McCarthy come off his line to collect it in the air.

However, he made a meal of it which allowed Haller to score from the cutest of angles and give David Moyes’s side a 2-1 lead at the break.

Saints came out of the blocks firing after the restart, playing a succession of crosses into the West Ham area.

The closest they came to scoring was when Sofiane Boufal’s low centre was just out of Shane Long’s reach at the far post.

That proved to be Boufal’s final contribution as, with the game in the balance, Hasenhuttl turned to Ings to help salvage something from the London Stadium.

But just seconds after the ex-Liverpool man came on, Antonio extended the Hammers’ lead to make it 3-1.

In a nicely worked move, Haller flicked the ball to Fornals before he played Antonio in.

Antonio, one-v-one against McCarthy, then drilled it past the Saints goalkeeper in the 54th minute to leave the St Mary’s outfit with a mountain to climb.

The 29-year-old West Ham forward, who seems to love playing against Hasenhuttl’s team, should have netted his second of the match.

Haller played him in with an excellent trick pass over the Saints defence, only for McCarthy to deny him another goal with an excellent save.

Ings came close to making it an interesting finale to the game in the 86th minute after his shot was deflected just wide of the post.

But with a two-goal advantage, the Hammers managed to see the rest of the game out to leave Hasenhuttl still searching for his first win against them.