Jarrod Bowen extends West Ham’s unbeaten run to four matches at Southampton
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Jarrod Bowen struck a 59th-minute winner for West Ham to consign new Southampton head coach Ivan Juric to a 1-0 defeat in his first match in charge. Former Torino boss Juric had watched Sunday’s goalless draw at Fulham from the stand to give renewed hope to the Premier League’s bottom club, but they suffered a 14th defeat of the campaign to remain eight points from safety.
It was not all good news for opposite number Julen Lopetegui after he watched Hammers’ goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski suffer a nasty first-half blow, which saw him leave the pitch on a stretcher after 36 minutes. VAR was required at the start of the second period after Guido Rodriguez had a red card downgraded to a yellow before Bowen grabbed his sixth goal of the season to extend West Ham’s unbeaten run to four matches.
Juric’s first major call was to drop Saints starlet Tyler Dibling and hand only a second start of the season to forward Paul Onuachu. West Ham welcomed back Carlos Soler but lost Lucas Paqueta to suspension, and the former almost put them ahead in the fourth minute.
Aaron Wan-Bissaka ended a lung-bursting run with a fine cross for Soler, who smashed the ball against the crossbar before Rodriguez’s follow-up strike was deflected away from goal. It was a let-off for sluggish Southampton, but they quickly improved and Onuachu headed wide after Kyle Walker-Peters impressively kept in a cross by fellow wing-back Yuki Sugawara.
