West Ham United moved out of the Premier League’s relegation zone on Sunday afternoon with a 1-0 win over Southampton at the London Stadium.
Nayef Aguerd’s first-half header, initially disallowed for offside, proved to be the difference, with West Ham climbing five places in the table from 19th to 14th, leaving them a point clear of the relegation zone but with between one and two games in hand on the rest of the sides currently sat in the bottom nine.
As West Ham started a run of three Premier League matches in six days with victory over one of their relegation-threatened rivals, here are the major talking points from the London Stadium victory.
READ MORE : Every word West Ham's David Moyes said on Southampton win, Nayef Aguerd and Brendan Rodgers
Big move up the table
West Ham’s hopes of moving out of the Premier League’s bottom three took a turn for the worse before they even kicked a ball against Southampton over the weekend, with six of the bottom nine in action before them meaning they fell down to 19th, two points off safety and knowing they had to beat Southampton to get out of the relegation zone.
Of West Ham’s final 12 games, many of them come against sides right at the top of the table, or right in the dogfight for survival, with Southampton behind their penultimate home game against a bottom-nine side this term.
For 25 minutes, both sides showed exactly why they are in the position they are in, neither offered much imagination and West Ham fans were to quick boo and show their frustrations whenever a chance of a counter attack, a quick play, or attacking football was dashed either by a poor pass or by a player turning backwards.
Jarrod Bowen, who has shown more signs of being back at his best in recent months, chased down a loose ball and drew a foul out of Duje Caleta-Car, proving to be a crucial moment.
Thilo Kehrer, starting ahead of the returning Vladimir Coufal at right, took the free-kick and his whipped-in ball found the rising Aguerd, who went a long way to warranting his £30million price tag with a thumping header to put West Ham ahead. The goal was ruled out initially, but following a lengthy VAR check, the Moroccan was able to celebrate his first goal in a West Ham shirt.
From then, West Ham had a good spell between the goal and half-time. Benrahma’s shot from the edge of the penalty box flew over the bar, teed up by the on-rushing Kehrer, who minutes later, almost found himself clean through on goal and had he been better his first touch, could have slotted when clean through on goal.
Bowen could have made it 2-0 when latching onto Benrahma’s outside the foot through ball found Bowen, who cut onto his right and curled a shot that was only denied by the crossbar.
Southampton’s only first half chance of note came from Romain Perraud, whose driven low effort forced Fabianski into a diving stop, with the Polish stopper given an initially chilled route back into the team after over a month, but Saints’ threat gradually grew throughout the second half.
Romeo Lavia and substitute Carlos Alcaraz both steered shots on target, which Fabianski met and held well, although Saints were not completely out of it.
West Ham then flurried on waves of chances, Benrahma’s free-kick forced Gavin Bazunu into a diving stop, with West Ham’s other chances lacking a bit of quality and killer instinct needed to give them a cushier 2-0 advantage.
Southampton almost levelled the scoreline late on when Nigerian substitute Paul Onuachu met a cross and headed it straight onto the crossbar, a fortunate reprieve for the Hammers.
The performance was far from the Hammers’ best and as manager David Moyes rightly pointed out that they have played better this season on multiple occasions without winning, but at this time of the campaign, points gained are more important than any other factor.
Jumping five places off a relatively flat performance against the bottom of the league side highlights exactly the crazy nature of this relegation race and why any points gained are strides towards safety.
Lucas Paqueta’s brilliance
Brazilian midfielder Lucas Paqueta arrived at the London Stadium in August in a big-money move that could make him the club’s most expensive ever signing at over £52million, initially signed for £35.6million.
Paqueta was signed for his creativity, ability to score and create goals, quick feet, clever tricks and even has the samba celebrations to go with it, but there is another side to his game, a gritty, competitive grafter that West Ham need to get the best out of at a time like this.
Paqueta’s display may not have been one solely about good passes or tricks, although both were seen briefly, but about his defensive qualities, breaking records before the half-time whistle had blown.
Prior to the interval, Paqueta had completed seven tackles, five more than any other player in the game. That number was more than any West Ham player had managed in a whole league game all season.
He added three more to that in the second half, winning ten tackles in the game, six more than any other player and more than a third of West Ham’s total of 28 tackles against the Saints.
The game lacked flair and while Paqueta has had lacked consistency at times this term, he is more seen as a creative player, but his total of ten tackles highlighted why there is more to his game than the flair everyone expects.
That total of ten tackles is the first time a West Ham player has managed that many in a Premier League match since Mohamed Diame in October 2012 against Queens Park Rangers.
Paqueta’s tackle tally led to Moyes responding with a light-hearted joke about him, but did praise his defensive qualities at the same time.
“Those Brazilians are tough tacklers aren’t they, that’s why we bought them here for,” Moyes joked to football.london .
“Let’s be fair, we bought Lucas Paqueta in to score goals, make goals, do lots of other things, but we’re thrilled he’s got another side to him as well which he is, he’s a really diligent, hard-working boy which we like a lot and we want him to make us more goals, score more goals.
“That’s the other side of the game which we are hoping for from him.”
Lukasz Fabianski’s return
Polish goalkeeper Fabianski returned after a gruesome facial injury at the end of February and after Alphonse Areola got a chance in the ex-Arsenal stopper’s absence, there was always going to be a debate over whether Moyes would stick with Areola or turn back to Fabianski.
The 37-year-old did not have too much to deal with on the whole, but did well to stop efforts from Perraud, Lavia and Alcaraz and generally kept a cool head to help with the rest of the back line in front of him.
In Areola’s two league starts while Fabianski was out, he did not keep a clean sheet and let in four against Brighton and Hove Albion, something Fabianski has not done since August 2019.
Areola had a chance to prove himself for club and country last month, but now finds himself back in the same position he was in for West Ham and France, sat on the bench hoping for his moment to get regular game time.
Centre-back partnership continues to grow
The biggest complaint of Aguerd since his arrival has simply been his lack of availability, especially with he and Zouma not being fit at the same time for that long. When Aguerd has been fit, he has hardly put a foot wrong.
In a game where West Ham lacked the ability to take their chances, it took Aguerd, whose only goal in England before kick-off was an own goal against Manchester United last month, to come up with the goods, and his headed goal at the end of Kehrer’s free-kick was one any striker would have been proud of.
It capped off a really solid display from the Moroccan international, whose newly found partnership with Zouma has the potential to be make or break in West Ham’s fight for survival. A goal and a clean sheet will only strengthen that.
Two moments in the game really highlighted how quickly they have blossomed as a duo, having recently been pictured together away from training.
The first was the goal, with Zouma giving Aguerd a big hug in the celebrations, with the centre-back delighted to see his colleague open his West Ham scoring account.
The second was at full-time, where in the final kick of the game, Zouma went down injured after taking a late kick from Carlos Alcaraz, with Aguerd quick to rush in Zouma’s defence and confront Alcaraz about the challenge.
Aguerd has shown he is a leader before and yet again, his actions for his teammates only highlight that.
Kehrer takes his chance
German international defender Kehrer was perhaps a surprise inclusion in the West Ham starting line-up at right-back, despite Vladimir Coufal being back available after an absence with a heel injury.
Kehrer found himself booed early on when turning to pass backwards when there was a possibility to get forward, but avenged himself when his free-kick created the opening goal.
Since his £10.1million arrival from Paris Saint-Germain, Kehrer has found himself in the spotlight at times for all of the wrong reasons, but against Saints, there was plenty to like.
He attacked well and after his assist, teed up a chance for Benrahma, as well as chasing onto a loose pass that almost led to him going close to scoring had his first touch been better.
Coufal’s injury absence seemed to highlight just how far in the pecking order he was ahead of Kehrer and Ben Johnson, but Kehrer took a chance given to him by Moyes and with Coufal back, Moyes now has food for thought.
Kehrer has at times been scapegoated throughout his time at West Ham, but his performance against Southampton certainly deserves some recognition.
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