- The two sides have faced each other 98 times in all competitions, with West Ham holding a slight edge at 37-32-28.
- West Ham manager Sam Allardyce has never lost to Southampton in top flight competition, winning 3 and drawing 6.
- Southampton are a goal shy of 650 Premier League goals in club history.
With both teams sitting on four points in their first three league matches, the two sides come into this match at St. Mary’s Stadium in very different shape.
The home side are almost entirely injury free and playing lovely soccer, especially striker Rickie Lambert who has vaulted to star status in international play for England along with playing fantastic for Southampton to start the season as well.
Saints manager Mauricio Ponchettino have loads of quality strikers to choose from, between Lambert, Jay Rodriguez, and Pablo Daniel Osvaldo.
The Hampshire club seems to be quite boosted by their fantastic captures in the summer window, including Osvaldo, Victor Wanyama in the midfield, and defender Dejan Lovern. The team only swopped for those three players, but spent an estimated £33 million ($53 million) on the trio combined.
On the other side of the coin, Sam Allardyce and West Ham have a serious striker conundrum.
With Andy Carroll mired in foot injury misery (a Lis Franc problem most likely, given what Allardyce said) and new signing Mladen Petric not match fit yet, Allardyce will continue to turn to Malian targetman Modibo Maïga. The 26-year-old has played every minute of the three matches so far and has yet to find the net. His only other option up front is 18-year-old Englishman Elliott Lee, who has a grand total of 3 Premier League minutes in his career, making his debut in the Hammers loss to Stoke City two weeks ago
What they’re saying
Victor Wanyama on Southampton’s chances against West Ham: “I think it is going to be a hard game, but we are ready for it and looking forward to the challenge. We have been working hard and we had some good results, and also some bad ones, but I think we are still on track and looking forward to doing well. I would say (our) first (goal) is to just do better than last season and from there we will see what happens. I think that is possible.”
West Ham midfielder Mark Noble on Lambert: “When you see a player like that who has worked so hard and played the leagues you can’t help but be happy for him. I played against him a couple of times (in the Championship), and I always thought he was a top player. As a holding midfielder you are always in close contact with centre-forwards and the ball was getting fizzed into him and he was laying it off, so you can appreciate that. Lambert is a dangerous player, but we have got two good centre-halves so I am hopeful they can look after him over the 90 minutes.”
Allardyce on Andy Carroll’s injury setback: “We had been very cautious, very patient with him along the way and it’s sad this has happened for him as well as us. He doesn’t need an operation but we need to give the foot time to re-heal, continue the rehab and get him back in training again.”
Prediction
With Allardyce’s striker problems, this match’s result depends solely on whether the home side is ready to take the leap forward together with the new signings and put on a real show. This has all the resources to be a big Southampton win, but they will need to grab the bull by the horns and prove to the Premier League that this is one unit rather than 11 players. A 2-0 Saints victory is not a bad bet at all in this scenario.