Nuno Espirito Santo’s West Ham United armoury is well-stocked ahead of the visit of Southampton. It is up to the boss, though, to decide which weapons he chooses.

Does he go for the blunt object that is Tomas Soucek? Or will he opt for something a little more subtle? The surgical dagger-like precision of Joel Piroe?

Tonda Eckert, he of Spygate fame/shame, is not so lucky. Star striker Cyle Larin and midfield general Flynn Downes are both doubts.

And though Southampton can point to a fine record against more talented opposition – they took four points off Coventry last season, stunned Arsenal in the FA Cup and delivered Swansea’s only defeat prior to last weekend – West Ham will be quietly confident as they look to reclaim top spot.

West Ham United can hurt Southampton in a number of key areas

Of the ten goals Southampton have conceded in the Championship this season, six have come via crosses from wide positions or set-pieces.

In the 2-1 defeat by Wrexham, Kieffer Moore climbed highest to nod the hosts in front in North Wales from a corner. Wrexham’s winner arrived as Keven Schlotterbeck turned the ball into his own net in the 89th minute, the Saints once again failing to block a teasing delivery in open play.

An inability to stop crosses coming in, and an inability to deal with them when they do, has been a cause for concern all season.

And it just so happens that Nuno has in his armoury some of the biggest set-piece threats in the league, and a handful of players who love to arrive late and finish off crosses, like Stoke City’s Ethan Galbraith in August.

Konstantinos Mavropanos is the top-scoring centre-back in Europe’s top-ten ranked leagues. Soucek scored his 48th and 49th goals for the club at Lincoln. Kante has barely taken off his goalscoring shoes in recent weeks, and at Swansea Mukasa showed why Pep Guardiola praised his ‘unbelievable’ knack for sniffing out chances.

In that aforementioned EFL Cup tie, meanwhile, Josh Ajala found himself unmarked to convert a Lewis Orford dead-ball. His first goal in senior football could hardly have come easier.

Saturday, then, pitches a team who thrive on crosses against a team who have a history of struggling against them.

Nuno Espirito Santo and Tonda Eckert will both demand a good start

Eckert has only lost seven from 44 Championship games since taking charge, initially on a temporary basis following the disastrous reign of Will Still. In all but one of those defeats, Southampton conceded the opening goal.

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They will be a very tough team to beat and I reckon that they will be a top six side.

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Subsequent progress aside, the 2-1 loss at Watford on the opening weekend – including two of the softest goals you’ll ever see inside half an hour – showed that this is still a side with a soft underbelly.

Meanwile, Nuno has demanded that West Ham start games better, sick of seeing his side go behind in the first-half. That had happened a staggering seven times in their first 12 games of 2026/27.

“I think the main lesson we took is that we have to start games better,” Nuno said after seeing his side fall 2-0 down at Millwall. “We are reacting, but we want to be the first team to act.”

Considering that the Saints have only claimed three points from losing positions all season – and considering both of their defeats came after going at least one goal behind inside 35 minutes – the Hammers should have plenty of motivation to heed Nuno’s message.

Saints leader Flynn Downes could miss West Ham reunion

Much has been made of the fact that Southampton’s top scorer Cyle Larin is a doubt for Saturday’s fixture. The seven-goal Canadian was forced off at Bolton last week, and the Saints failed to break the deadlock in his absence.

Yet, like West Ham, the Saints have shared the goals around this term. Larin is one of eleven different goalscorers, albeit only he has more than three and a certain Divin Mubama – who could start in his absence – hasn’t made his mark on the South Coast yet.

The potential absence of Flynn Downes will not make quite so many headlines, but there is an argument that he would be an even greater loss than Larin.

Downes, another ex-Hammer, has started ten out of eleven Championship matches. Of all their regular starters, he averages by far the most tackles with 2.6 per game. Only Schlotterbeck makes more interceptions. Downes is Southampton’s most effective midfielder out of possession by all metrics.

When you add in that Southampton as a team average the least amount of tackles across the whole Championship, West Ham could face a team lacking bite, energy, and ball-winning in the middle of the park, not to mention what Eckert calls Downes’ ‘natural’ leadership.

“He is, I think, at the peak age, the prime time of his career. He’s in top shape,” Eckert said back in September of Downes, who only played 21 league matches for the Hammers from 2022 to 2024 but has captained the Saints five times this term. “He can drive a game.”

James Ward-Prowse is likely to face his parent club, potentially alongside Cameron Bragg. Although Eckert may opt to hand the excellent Caspar Jander a start as he builds up his fitness following a hamstring injury.

West Ham fans will not need telling that Ward-Prowse, at 31, is no longer the same tireless presence who hared around the pitch for Southampton. He and Bragg average 0.8 and 0.9 tackles per game, compared to Downes’ 2.6. And while Jander is a fine player on and off the ball, he’s only featured twice in 2026/27 and is not yet up to full match sharpness.

Nuno packed the midfield away to Swansea, while Mohamadou Kante set up Divine Mukasa’s first-half winner. An extra body in midfield – Soucek, for instance – could further expose a soft Southampton centre. After all, neither Ward-Prowse nor Bragg feel particularly suited to dealing with the running power of Kante, or the box-crashing physicality of Soucek.

West Ham enjoyed a lot of success sitting back against Swansea, soaking up the pressure and hitting them on the break. A similar approach could reap similar rewards against a Southampton side with the fourth-highest possession average in the league, but the fewest successful tackles.