Irons win the battle but Pellegrini war will go on

West Ham won the battle but the war surrounding Manuel Pellegrini’s position will rage on for a while yet after this hard-earned win which saw us dominate the first half and cling on for our lives at the end.

That’s a worry because this was not a great Saints side and we really could and should have won by two or three if truth be told.

Having said that we saw a penalty ruled out for a double foul on Antonio and Haller which makes you wonder what’s the point of technology if it can come up with decisions like that.

Pellegrini finally decided to play two up and it worked, as virtually every fan knew it would be, with the Frenchman scoring the only goal of the match following some amazing input from Antonio.

He was truly amazing with a stunning nine out of ten performance whilst Haller looked a player reborn with the man of the match alongside him.

Mikey had a brilliant goal ruled out for the same reason as at Chelsea – the ball hit his hand on the bounce and with the rules as they are there was no alternative but to rule it out.

Fornals is improving and saw a great shot well saved and Declan put in another fine performance.

But this was all about Antonio if we are honest – a player who is clearly not the type that is on the manager’s favourite list was unplayable at times.

The team put in a great shift against a team that’s been in reasonable form recently but there’s still a way to go and the manager will now this was the first fragile brick in his wall.