When West Ham look back on this season as the months tick down to May, they could very well find themselves destined for the lottery of the play-offs and living to regret slow starts like the one that has seen them lose 3-2 to promotion rivals Southampton.

After Middlesbrough’s statement 5-1 win at Bolton on Friday night West Ham knew they had to win and hope Swansea didn’t beat QPR to go back to the top of the Championship.

QPR did their bit as they thrashed the Swans but once again Nuno Espirito Santo’s infuriating inability to get his West Ham side to turn up for the start of matches and pick the right side have cost them dear.

The Hammers were woeful early on yet again as they looked like zombies strolling around the pitch, watching Southampton pass the ball through their lines with ease.

Tonda Eckert’s side were deservedly 2-0 up before West Ham woke up.

Nuno failing to address major issue as slow start costs West Ham again

Nuno has had over a year to sort the issue of slow starts and yet is failing to address a problem which will cost West Ham automatic promotion if it continues much longer.

And had Nuno started Pablo or Joel Piroe instead of the utterly awful waste of space that is Valentin ‘Taty’ Castellanos then they likely would have made more of their domination for 25 minutes after falling 2-0 down.

Instead they only got one back, through a Kyle Walker-Peters thunderbolt, and sat off again to allow Saints to score with their next attack.

Hammers News revealed those inside West Ham are shocked by how poor Taty has been in the Championship.

That continued at the London Stadium and the Argentine looked disinterested too.

Taty can only play as a second striker as one of two up front. He has no pace, no physical presence and no redeeming features for a striker in the English game, especially in the second tier.

Having him up front was like playing with 10 men for West Ham but it sums Nuno’s tactics up that he somehow stayed on the pitch for the entire game.

Tale of two goalkeepers as Saints hold off West Ham

Some West Ham players have to wait years before being blessed with their own terrace chant. Apart from the fact it is catchy, it is frankly baffling that Castellanos has one. It has certainly not been earned.

And Pablo showed what a terrible call it was from Nuno to start Taty ahead of him by impacting the game from the moment he came on in the second half.

That in itself was far too late as the Brazilian was brought on along with Tomas Soucek.

Nuno’s blind spot for Manor Solomon continues, although he was substituted in the second half.

Ahead of the game, Solomon said illness has been to blame for his poor West Ham form. On this evidence he must still be very sick.

While Taty was West Ham’s big problem, fingers will also be pointed at the two goalkeepers after this damaging home defeat.

There continues to be major question marks over Mads Hermansen after he clawed a Southampton cross that was going to nobody, straight to the opposition for a goal that should have been avoided.

At the other end, Daniel Peretz put in what can only be described as one of the best and luckiest performances from an opposing goalkeeper ever seen at the London Stadium.

West Ham had 28 shots in this game, 10 of them on target.

If Peretz was not making a save or punching the ball clear, it was literally hitting him like a human forcefield around the Southampton goal. Peretz was even brilliant by accident when Max Kilman hit a beautiful strike which struck the bar and hit the Saints stopper on the back before rolling out of play rather than into his own net.

You make your own luck sometimes and Peretz certainly did with a string of at least seven saves to keep West Ham at bay.

On another day West Ham would have won this game comfortably.

But Nuno’s failure to address the same old story of slow starts will cost West Ham automatic promotion unless it is taken more seriously by everyone at the club and urgently.

Even the dozy ball boys at the London Stadium were half asleep during the first half as they were repeatedly berated by Arne Engels for their failure to retrieve balls for West Ham’s players when they were trying to sustain attacking momentum.

West Ham’s home form is already a major worry. They are failing to deal with the fact the game is everyone’s big day out in this division.

On average over the last 10 years teams who achieve automatic promotion can afford to lose five to six games maximum.

The Hammers have already lost two with 34 matches to go.

If Nuno and his players don’t wake up soon, the lottery of the play-offs awaits this sleepy side and they will only have themselves to blame.

West Ham player ratings vs Southampton:

Hermansen 3/10, Walker-Peters 8/10, Mavropanos 7/10, Kilman 5/10, Morato 4/10, Engels 7/10, Mukasa 5/10, Kante 8/10, Solomon 3/10, Bowen 7/10, Taty 1/10.