Southampton buoyed by Cup record as West Ham await in second round | OneFootball

Southampton will face West Ham United in the EFL Cup second round in the week commencing 24 August, an early examination for Tonda Eckert’s side. Sainstmarching.com notes that the Hammers are expected to walk the Championship, yet the Saints can point to a favourable Cup record.

West Ham have retained Jarrod Bowen and can also call on James Ward-Prowse, long remembered at St Mary’s for his free-kick prowess. Eckert has options too, with Leo Scienza, Finn Azaz and Lewis Dobbin forming a dangerous attacking trio, and Divin Mubama set to face his former club after his loan was confirmed.

Despite only one win in their past 10 league meetings with Nuno Espirito Santo’s men, Southampton have won the last three Cup ties between the clubs.

The run began with a 2-1 home victory in the 1992 Zenith Data Systems Cup, the competition’s final year. In 1995, they edged West Ham 2-1 in the League Cup, with Francis Benali and Matt Le Tissier in the side. Most recently, Ralph Hasenhuttl’s team beat David Moyes’s West Ham 3-1 in the FA Cup in 2022, through Romain Perraud, James Ward-Prowse and Armando Broja.

That sequence gives Eckert’s men reason to believe they could reach the third round again this season, as they did last year. Even so, a Cup exit would not be calamitous, with promotion the overriding priority.

Beating West Ham would offer a lift after starting the Championship with a four point penalty, but defeat would not dramatically sour the mood at St Mary’s. More pressing, failing to beat either Watford or Stoke City beforehand would set alarms ringing, though neutrals may relish this early-season meeting of two second-tier heavyweights.

Source: Sainstmarching.com

“Artificial intelligence was used to assist in creating this article based on reporting from the original source quoted.”