On an afternoon when victory would have sent West Ham United to the top of the EFL Championship, it was the Saints who ended-up marching off with a 3-2 win and all three points to leave Nuno Espírito Santo’s side in third-place.

“Overall, it's been a very frustrating day,” admitted the Hammers head coach after early strikes from Kuryu Matsuki and James Bree had left his side reeling and, although the recalled Kyle Walker-Peters pulled one back against his former club, Lewis Dobbin then restored the visitors’ two-goal advantage by the break, ahead of substitute Tomáš Souček netting in the final moments. “There was not enough determination early on, we made a poor start and conceded twice.”

Nuno made two changes from the side that won at league-leaders Swansea City (1-0) last weekend with Walker-Peters and Taty Castellanos coming in for the injured Joël Veltman and substitute Pablo.

With Storm Boelo raging through Stratford, it was Southampton who got off to a whirlwind start as Matsuki pounced on the rebound after Léo Scienza’s second-minute shot was parried by Mads Hermansen.

And, on 11 minutes, Caspar Jander’s left-wing cross was tipped towards the back of his area by the Hammers ‘keeper, who was then given no chance as Bree strolled onto the loose ball before unleashing a spectacular, angled 18-yard volley that scorched under the right-hand angle.

“There were too many bouncing balls and every time Southampton had a shot, they seemed to go to their free man,” grimaced Nuno, who then saw his team awake from their early slumber as they laid siege to Southampton’s goal. “But - after that - there was a good reaction and we had enormous involvement in offensive situations. It was a good spell.”

Indeed, on 24 minutes, Divine Mukasa threaded the ball to Walker-Peters who advanced into the Saints area ahead of letting fly with a sizzling 15-yarder that flew past ‘keeper Daniel Peretz on its way under the left-hand angle. 

But 10 minutes before the break – totally against the run of play - Scienza saw another shot parried by Hermansen only for Dobbin to bundle the loose ball over the line.

“We’d created and had broken them but the defining moment was conceding that third goal before half time because that made our task even harder to reverse the result,” observed Nuno, who endured a frustrating, free-flowing second period watching the Hammers being  frequently held at bay by Peretz and the Saints defiant defence before the recently-arrived Souček finally broke the visitors’ resistance with an 18-yarder three minutes into stoppage-time. “You have to credit their ‘keeper because he did a fantastic job today.  We tried hard and had more than 50 touches in the Southampton box which says a lot about our offensive game but - in the end - our second goal came too late.”

With a quarter of the season now gone, next-up, the Hammers face fifth-placed West Bromwich Albion at London Stadium on Saturday (kick-off 3pm).