Southampton v West Ham United
Premier League, St Mary's Stadium, Thursday 26 December 2024, 3pm GMT
West Ham United make their final away trip of the calendar year as they travel to St Mary’s Stadium to take on Southampton, aiming to extend their unbeaten run to four matches following a 1-1 draw with Brighton & Hove Albion at the weekend.
For Southampton, the return to the Premier League has been far from smooth. The Saints find themselves rooted to the bottom of the table, eight points adrift of safety, with among the league’s worst defensive record (36 goals conceded) and the lowest scoring tally (eleven goals).
Their struggles mirror the plight of fellow promoted sides Ipswich Town and Leicester City, who, alongside Wolverhampton Wanderers, are the only clubs to have suffered nine or more defeats in this season’s opening 17 games.
Historically, only four Premier League teams have managed to escape relegation after sitting bottom at Christmas. Wolves were the most recent outfit to achieve the feat, defying the odds in the 2022/23 season under the stewardship of current West Ham boss Julen Lopetegui.
Charged with engineering Southampton’s own great escape is Croatian head coach Ivan Jurić. The 49-year-old, appointed at the weekend, arrives on the south coast with a wealth of Serie A experience as both a player and manager.
His recent stint at Roma ended with his dismissal in November after just 12 games, but Jurić’s track record at clubs such as Torino, Genoa and Crotone has earned him a reputation for helping teams punch above their weight.
Intriguingly, he joins Southampton having previously been a candidate to replace Ralph Hasenhüttl when the Austrian head coach departed in 2022.
Tickets…
West Ham fans are advised that the Club’s allocation of 3,008 tickets have sold out.
The first 90 per cent of tickets sold out to Bondholders and Season Ticket Holders with 19+ Loyalty Points. The remaining ten per cent (308 tickets) were then made available by a ballot process to Season Ticket Holders who had yet to purchase for this fixture. The ballot closed at 12noon on Thursday 5 December.
Travel…
With this being a Boxing Day fixture, there will of course be no regular mainline train services between London and Southampton - so the only real options are to take the official coach travel, or drive yourself.
The M3 motorway takes you most of the way, before you take the A27 from Junction 14, then the A33 into Southampton and follow the signs for St Mary’s Stadium.
If you do opt to drive to the game, there is no parking in the streets surrounding St Mary’s, so you should instead head for one of the following City Council car parks: Bedford Place (postcode SO15 2QW), Grosvenor Square (SO15 2GR), West Park Road (SO15 1AP), Marlands (SO15 1BA), Eastgate (SO14 3HH).
Alternative options, including shuttle buses and minibus parking, are suggested by Southampton FC themselves, and can be found by clicking HERE.
How To Follow…
West Ham United’s away Premier League match with Southampton has been selected for broadcast in the United Kingdom by Amazon Prime Video.
If you live outside the UK, click HERE for details of Premier League listings in your territory.
You can follow the action via our live blog on whufc.com and our app, and across our social media channels. We will also have highlights and exclusive reaction for you after the final whistle on our website and social media.
Live audio commentary will be available in the UK on BBC Radio London and worldwide on our official website and app.
Team News…
Lucas Paquetá will be suspended for West Ham's Boxing Day fixture, having been shown his fifth yellow card of the Premier League season during the 1-1 draw with Brighton & Hove Albion.
Carlos Soler will most likely take his place in the squad having served a one-match suspension at the weekend following his fifth yellow card of the season.
Elsewhere, boss Julen Lopetegui said during his pre-match press conference that two unnamed players are fighting to shake off minor knocks, while Michail Antonio continues to be absent as he recovers from surgery on a lower limb fracture suffered in a road traffic accident earlier this month.
Southampton will be without Ross Stewart, Will Smallbone and goalkeeper Gavin Bazunu until the New Year as they continue to make their recovery from injuries.
Captain Jack Stephens on the other hand will be eligible for a return to the Saints' starting line-up having served a three-match ban following his second red card of the season, picked up during their 5-1 home defeat to Chelsea.
Opposition…
Nicknamed ‘The Saints’ in recognition of their ecclesiastical origins, Southampton joined the newly formed Football League Division Three in 1920.
After being promoted in 1960 and again in 1966 - largely thanks to the prolific goalscoring exploits of Scottish forward George O’Brien and local lad and future England international Martin Chivers - Southampton enjoyed their first eight-season stay in the top flight.
The 1970s saw the Saints relegated again, but it was during this four-year spell in the Second Division that the club won its first and, so far, only major trophy, shocking Manchester United to win the FA Cup in 1976.
That success was achieved under the management of long-serving manager Lawrie McMenemy, who remained in charge for 13 seasons between 1973-85 and later returned for a stint as Director of Football in the 1990s.
By then, Southampton had become founder members of the Premier League in 1992, with the club’s famed academy producing a succession of future stars including Alan Shearer and Matt Le Tissier.
That tradition has continued over the past few decades, with the likes of Theo Walcott, Gareth Bale, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Adam Lallana and James Ward-Prowse all coming through the club’s ranks.
Southampton did drop out of the Premier League in 2005 and even down to League One in 2009, but they bounced back with successive promotions in 2011 and 2012.
Since that promotion alongside the Hammers, Southampton have only spent one season outside of the English top flight. Their 2022/23 relegation was followed by an immediate promotion back to the Premier League under Russell Martin via the play-offs.
Previous Meetings…
West Ham United have only lost one of their last eleven Premier League encounters with Southampton, their last defeat coming at home on Boxing Day in 2021, when the Saints edged the Hammers 3-2 at London Stadium.
The last time the two sides met, West Ham emerged 1-0 winners in April 2023 courtesy of a first-half header from Nayef Aguerd. Southampton's defeat at London Stadium was part of a run of fixtures that saw the Saints close out the season with no wins in their last 13 games, condemning them to their first season outside the Premier League since they were promoted alongside the Irons in 2012.
West Ham's biggest Premier League win over Southampton was a 4-1 victory at the Boleyn Ground on 20 October 2012.
They also lead the all-time stats against the Saints, winning 20 of the 42 Premier League meetings between the two, with 12 wins for Southampton and ten draws.
In all competitions, the Hammers' record win over the Saints came back in October 1913, when the east Londoners were 5-1 Southern Division victors at the Boleyn Ground.
Match Officials…
Referee: Lewis Smith
Assistants: Stuart Burt and Steve Meredith
Fourth Official: James Linington
VAR: Stuart Attwell
Assistant VAR: Richard West
Lewis Smith has been confirmed as the man in the middle for West Ham United's Boxing Day clash with Southampton in the Premier League.
The Wigan native became just the sixth whistler outside of PGMOL’s (Professional Game Match Officials Limited) Select Group to take charge of a top-flight match last season, following in the footsteps of Sam Allison, Sam Barrott, Bobby Madley, Josh Smith and Rebecca Welch.
The then 30-year-old’s first outing in the division saw Aston Villa beat Fulham 2-1 at Craven Cottage in February, and he has since taken his Premier League tally to five games, most recently overseeing Villa’s 3-1 win over Brentford at the start of this month.
Experienced in the National League and the EFL, Smith’s career began in September 2016 when he took charge of an Under-18 Premier League match between Liverpool and Everton, and he has been on an upward trajectory since refereeing an FA Cup first-round match between Banbury and Canvey Island little over four years ago.
He has never been involved in a senior West Ham United fixture, but has refereed the Hammers’ U21s on two occasions in Premier League 2, as well as Southampton’s first team in the EFL Championship and Carabao Cup.
For more information about the officials, click HERE.
