Football: Antonio sees red in West Ham’s scoreless draw at Southampton

SOUTHAMPTON, ENGLAND (REUTERS) – Southampton were held to a scoreless draw by ten-man West Ham United in their Premier League clash on Saturday (Sept 11) after the Londoners had striker Michail Antonio sent off in second-half stoppage time for a clumsy challenge.

The first half offered little in the way of goalscoring chances as the two teams felt each other out, but the game opened up in the second half and the home side will be disappointed not to have taken all three points.

Jarrod Bowen had the pick of the chances for the visitors in the 72nd minute, but his shot was tipped over the crossbar by Alex McCarthy.

Two minutes later, substitute Armando Broja came off the bench and gave Southampton a shot in the arm, hitting the far post after an excellent run in the 82nd minute.

Broja had another superb chance in stoppage time as he connected with a superb header, but West Ham midfielder Declan Rice cleared the ball off the line to keep his side’s clean sheet intact.

Antonio was shown a second yellow card for a bad challenge on Moussa Djenepo and sent off, meaning he will miss the league game against Manchester United.

The draw meant West Ham slipped to fifth place in the standings on eight points, two behind leaders Manchester United. Southampton are 14th on three points and their coach Ralph Hasenhuettl told the BBC he thought they should have recorded their first victory of the season.

“With a little bit more luck, we could have won it. We tried something a little bit different today, we tried to invite them to play a little bit more,” he said.

“What was missing was the final punch in the chances we had. Armando showed he is a very good sub. He was immediately onto the opposition and had some threats that are new to this team,” he added.