BBC Sport pundit Mark Lawrenson has delivered his prediction for West Ham United’s visit to Southampton on Thursday.
Manuel Pellegrini’s side will be looking to get back to winning ways after falling to Watford last time out, but Lawro sees the hosts cruising to a 2-0 win at St Mary’s Stadium.
“Like [Ole Gunnar] Solskjaer at United, Southampton have undergone a transformation under Ralph Hasenhuttl, who got another win at the weekend when his new side beat Huddersfield,” he wrote on the BBC Sport website.
“With any new manager, there is nothing better than winning games straight away because you are almost convincing your players instantly that you really do know what you are on about. West Ham’s run of four straight wins ended with their defeat by Watford, and I have a feeling they will be reflecting on another loss after this game is over.”
OPINION
This game has gone from looking like one the Hammers should win comfortably to a game where they could easily be picked apart by the Saints. The South Coast side look like a different proposition under Hasenhuttl and they were excellent both against Arsenal and Huddersfield recently. West Ham, on the other hand, were well beaten by Watford and suddenly look short on confidence again. Consistency is the key for the Hammers this term and it’s something they’ve struggled with all season. They looked to finally be going on a run but the Hornets clash saw that come to a juddering halt. Having said that, we shouldn’t be too quick to pencil them in as losers on Thursday. There are still holes in the Southampton defence and that’s something Javier Hernandez and co. will look to exploit. It appears that a high scoring draw is a much more likely result here.
