West Ham suffered their second consecutive defeat at home after a 3-1 loss against Southampton in a performance that was branded by manager Sam Allardyce has not been good enough. The former Bolton manager has been under a lot of pressure to deliver results along with good football at Upton Park. West Ham are preparing for this campaign by bringing in a number of attacking players over the summer, but their campaign started with a disappointing 1-0 defeat against archrivals Tottenham. A 3-1 victory against Crystal Palace, though, helped them get off the mark for the campaign.

This victory showed a lot of good attacking football and expectations were raised ahead of the home match against Southampton. Three points looked to be heading West Ham’s way when Mark Noble scored in the first half to get West Ham in front. However, a remarkable comeback from Southampton with Schneiderlin scoring two goals meant that the hammers have suffered two consecutive home defeats. They put a lot of question marks on manager Allardyce’s ability to get the best out of players when playing in an attacking mode.

After the match, the manager said that he was surprised with the way his team conceded two goals from set pieces, where they are usually strong.

“We weren’t good enough. Southampton taught us a lesson. We weren’t sharp enough, didn’t retain the ball as well as they did or close down as well as they did, and we gifted them two goals. As much as they were in control and on top of the game, we’ve lost two very stupid goals from set-pieces. The big problem I had with the corner [for the second goal] was that it was a goal-kick of course,” said Allardyce, whose team are away at Hull City after the international break.