Defensive woes pile pressure on Bilic
Southampton tore through a sorry West Ham defence to rack up a 3-0 win at London Stadium on Sunday and pile more misery on an embattled Slaven Bilic.
Charlie Austin, Dusan Tadic and James Ward-Prowse got the goals to seal a fourth win in a row in all competitions for Claude Puel’s side, who have kept clean sheets in all of those successes.
By some contrast, West Ham have now shipped 14 goals in four Premier League games, despite the hosts siting deep and allowing Southampton the ball in a bid to avoid the sort of first-half collapse they suffered at West Brom last week.
The game lacked any real spark until Austin, against the side who rejected the chance to sign him last year, stylishly converted Ryan Bertrand’s cross to prompt boos from the home fans at the half-time whistle.
West Ham applied some pressure early in the second half, but a dreadful lapse in defence allowed Tadic to wrong-foot goalkeeper Adrian and finish into the unguarded net to put Southampton in cruise control and Ward-Prowse capped a thorough beating in stoppage time.
West Ham have now lost five of their six league games and slide into the bottom three. Southampton, meanwhile, are up to ninth.
Simone Zaza saw penalty shouts waved away by referee Jonathan Moss after he was knocked to ground by Cedric Soares, but opportunities were scarce in the early stages as West Ham willingly sat off their opponents.
