Southampton got their first three points of the season on the board against West Ham United, thanks to a late, dramatic, Charlie Austin penalty.
Mauricio Pellegrino made only one change to the starting line-up from the Swansea draw, handing Gabon international Mario Lemina his debut, with James Ward-Prowse making way.
West Ham were the first team to aim their sights at goal, as a clever through ball from Michail Antonio found the Hammers’ record signing Marko Arnautovic, but his shot went wide of Fraser Forster’s goal.
West Ham were made to pay for that missed attempt only two minutes later, as Manolo Gabbiadini played the ball out wide to Nathan Redmond, who drove towards Pablo Zabaleta whilst Gabbiadini was looking for the return ball behind the West Ham defence. Redmond eventually found Gabbiadini who stroked the ball beautifully beyond the reach of Joe Hart.
Gabbiadini’s goal ended the nine hour and 15 minutes wait for a Southampton goal at St Mary’s.
It was the Austrian again for West Ham who failed to make the most of a brilliant cross from Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez, as the ball was headed straight into Forster’s chest.
There was a possible case for a West Ham red card for the skipper Mark Noble, as he made a two-footed, out-of-control tackle on Mario Lemina, however, he was only shown a yellow card by referee Lee Mason.
West Ham were reduced to 10 men seven minutes later though, as a pointless flying elbow from Arnautovic into the neck of Jack Stephens was spotted by Mason, who sent the Austrian for an early shower.
The game went from bad to worse for the Hammers as Redmond’s driven pass into the box found Steven Davis, and although his control appeared to let him down and the chance had seemingly come and gone, ex-Saint José Fonte, dragged Davis down to the ground and Saints were awarded a penalty which was converted by Dusan Tadic, despite a heavy deflection off Hart’s foot.
On the stroke of half-time, Antonio found a small area of space after shrugging off Oriol Romeu and had a shot which was well saved by Fraser Forster, however, Hernandez was well positioned to place the rebound into the net.
After a couple of half chances, including a Gabbiadini strike which hit the crossbar from range, West Ham did find an equalizer as Aaron Cresswell’s cross was well met by substitute Diafra Sakho, and once again, a very good, reflex save from Forster smashed the crossbar and found the feet of Hernandez who once again scored the rebound.
The drama wasn’t over, as James Ward-Prowse’s cross was headed well over the bar by Maya Yoshida, however, Mason awarded a penalty as he judged Zabaleta’s challenge on Yoshida was too aggressive.
The penalty was comfortably converted by Austin who said after the game “I was going to hit it to his (Joe Hart’s) right, then Noble said to me, “he (Joe Hart) knows where you are going”, so I just changed my mind”.
Southampton got out of jail and made this game a lot harder than it needed to be. Nevertheless, Saints have their first three points on the board.
