It was far from pretty, but three priceless points at St Mary's lifted West Ham to within one point of the top half of the Premier League table.
Jarrod Bowen's second half strike - his 100th career league goal - was enough to secure all three points for Julen Lopetegui's side, who rarely managed to leave second gear on a cold, foggy day on the south coast.Yet that was sufficient to guarantee victory against the league's worst team, who failed to make the most of having installed a new manager last week in Ivan Juric.
The Saints went into the game with just one win from their opening 17 matches, which now reads one from 18. Yet West Ham can probably count themselves somewhat fortuitous to leave Hampshire with the win having been second best for long periods of the game.
Fortunately for Lopetegui, his team and the travelling fans, who gave good voice despite having been forced to make the Boxing Day journey to Southampton, Juric's charges were profligate when chances were presented to them - and they certainly had their fair share during the 107 minutes of game play.
The first half - which was extended by an extra ten minutes following a worrying head injury to Lukasz Fabianski - saw the hosts create a number of openings, all of which they failed to profit from. The main culprit being striker Paul Onuachu, who remains without a goal to his name this season despite being presented with two or three gilt-edged opportunities during the game.
However he was far from the only guilty party, with the two sides managing just seven shots on target between them, thus offering some indication why both have struggled to gain any kind of positive consistency during the opening half of the 2024/25 campaign.
West Ham's best chance of the first half fell to Carlos Soler, who was unable to keep his shot under the crossbar when presented with a great chance to open the scoring inside the opening 10 minutes from close range.
Yet it was West Ham's goalkeeper who was forced to work the hardest ahead of the half time interval, with Fabianski making several important stops - including one fantastic effort to steer a header away from goal when the odds were against him.
Sadly for the veteran Pole, who will celebrate his 40th birthday next April, Lopetegui was forced to recall second choice stopper Alphonse Areola after Fabianski was forced to retire having been stretchered off the field following an aerial collision with Nathan Wood - a challenge which earned the forward his team's only caution of the day.
That enforced change came shortly after Max Kilman had already been forced to retire with what looked like a dislocated shoulder, or possible collar bone injury.
With neither side managing to break the deadlock before the half time interval, it was Southampton who came out of the blocks quicker in the second period - although it was a similar story for the Premier League's bottom side as they failed to seriously threaten Areola thereafter.
And while West Ham were not exactly beating down Aaron Ramsdale's door, the goal that won the game finally arrived on the hour mark. A deep cross to Tomas Soucek was nodded back across goal towards Niclas Fullkrug and the German international's pinpoint header picked out Bowen, who was on hand to get to the ball first and steer it across the line.
And while he will no doubt be delighted with the win, which extends West Ham's unbeaten run in the Premier League to four matches, Head Coach Lopetegui was dealt further blows following cautions for Tomas Soucek and Guido Rodriguez, which rule both out of next weekend's home test against league leaders Liverpool.
It could've been even worse for the Argentinian, who to his great surprise was initially issued with a red card before the VAR team advised rookie ref Lewis Smith to review the incident on his pitchside monitor which resulted in the dismissal being downgraded to a yellow - harsh as that was, with TV replays confirmed Rodriguez had clearly won the ball before coming into contact with Southampton's Kyle Walker-Peters.
The three points lifted West Ham above Manchester United into 13th spot, level on points with Tottenham and Brentford who currently boast a superior goal difference. Yet crucially, it reduced the deficit to the European spots (seventh place) to just five points.
West Ham Utd: Fabianski (Areola 36), Wan-Bissaka, Mavropanos, Kilman (Todibo 19), Emerson (Coufal 88), Rodriguez (Cresswell 67), Soucek, Kudus, Soler (Alvarez 46), Bowen, Füllkrug (Summerville 67)
Subs not used: Irving, Guilherme, Ings
Goals: Bowen (59)
Booked: Rodriguez, Soucek
Southampton: Ramsdale, Sugawara (Bree 61), Harwood-Bellis, Bednarek, Wood, Walker-Peters (Manning 86), Downes (Aribo 61), Ugochukwu (Lallana 87), Fernandes (Dibling 73), Armstrong (Sulemana 73), Onuachu
Subs not used: McCarthy, Fraser, Archer
Booked: Wood
Referee: Lewis Smith
Attendance: 31,059
Possession: SFC 55%-45% WHUFC
Shots/on target: SFC 18/5-16/2 WHUFC
xG: SFC 1.13-1.45 WHUFC
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