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Mark Noble: ‘West Ham United fortunate to avoid heavier defeat’

Off the pitch at least, the game passed more peacefully for the hosts this time.

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The previous week they shipped goals in a 4-2 defeat at West Bromwich Albion, hardly prolific scorers, and have now conceded 14 in their last four league defeats.

“It’s been quite frankly embarrassing from West Ham”, he said.

Reid has been with West Ham since 2010.

West Ham United’s Cheikhou Kouyates remonstrates with the referee.

Charlie Austin, Dusan Tadic and James Ward-Prowse all scored to continue the miserable start for Slaven Bilic’s men at the Olympic Stadium, following their move from Upton Park over the summer, and Noble pulled no punches in his assessment of the match.

Their next chance to get their season back on track comes on Saturday when Middlesbrough visit Stratford.

Bilic replaced Lanzini with Sofiane Feghouli at the start of the second period.

“Can you blame the fans who left early?” However, referee Jonathan Moss waved away their heated appeals for a spot-kick. Dimitri Payet curled wide before strapping Southampton centre-half Virgil van Dijk hacked off the line from Simone Zaza’s prod towards goal.

But it was the visitors who finished strongly.

While Southampton’s reasonably poor start to life under Claude Puel has largely gone unnoticed, the lack of starts for Charlie Austin has served as a source of frustration to those on the South Coast. By this time numerous home fans had filtered away in acute disappointment.

Puel was unhappy with the way his players utilised possession against a defensive West Ham side in the first 45 minutes, but commended the way in which they improved after taking the lead. They were coping with that easily from our point of view.

“One player can make a mistake, this is four games, it is a team mistake, all of us”.

“The second goal was fantastic but we had many, many chances”. We had the ball three times in our box and we should have cleared it, but we didn’t do it. “I don’t think you can carry both of them”.

“We can talk about the confidence, but it’s a chain reaction”. It is a team, it is teamwork, it is a team mistake.

“If he lost them he really would be under some pressure”, Sutton added. “They are training hard and want to do it but it’s not happening”.

Sky Sports pundit Jamie Redknapp has lambasted the West Ham United players following their 3-0 defeat to Southampton at the London Stadium on Sunday.

West Ham’s injury problems meant Bilic was forced to deploy Havard Nordtveit out of position at right-back and the Norway midfielder was exposed when Southampton illuminated a drab first half with their 40th minute opener. It was important to score a second goal. But it’s happened for four games now and we have to change it, big time.

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“Sunday’s game against Southampton is of course one that we can win and we will be doing all that we can to do so and to take the victory at home”, he stated to the club’s website.

Slaven Bilic