West Ham quartet ‘shocking’ in pushing Lopetegui towards sack but Alexander-Arnold escapes worst XI

If Julen Lopetegui finally is sacked by West Ham then four players in particular should be ashamed at their final performances under the Spaniard.

GOALKEEPER: Jose Sa (Wolves)
Alphonse Areola had made the spot his own to push Julen Lopetegui closer to the brink at West Ham but Jose Sa popped up to concede all three of Nottingham Forest’s shots, not even being in his actual net for a couple of them, while struggling again in terms of distribution.

RIGHT-BACK: James Justin (Leicester)
Yukinari Sugawara had a miserable afternoon against Brentford as a half-time substitute but in terms of 90-minute awfulness there have been few able to match Justin this season. His crossing was poor and Ian Maatsen thoroughly exposed him for Aston Villa’s winner.

Trent Alexander-Arnold somehow escapes inclusion.

CENTRE-BACK: Taylor Harwood-Bellis (Southampton)
Poor for the fourth and fifth goals especially as Southampton succumbed to another crushing defeat. “I didn’t see it coming. It’s upsetting that we went out and that happened. It’s not nice,” said Harwood-Bellis, who added that “it just didn’t feel like we were aggressive enough”.

‘Aggressive’ can be replaced by a great many words in that final point, including ‘good’.

CENTRE-BACK: Max Kilman (West Ham)
Quite embarrassingly struggled to cope with the modest threat of Erling Haaland, coming closest to shutting the Norwegian down when he incredibly ambitiously appealed for offside at 3-0. Must be bored of conceding goals by now, having seen 77 go past him in his last 38 Premier League starts.

CENTRE-BACK: Jean-Clair Todibo (West Ham)
Not faring much better at all was Kilman’s partner, who was comfortable enough in possession but fell into the same defensive black hole as his teammates before going off with an injury early in the second half.

There might not be a rush to trigger that £35m buy option just yet.

LEFT-BACK: Kyle Walker-Peters (Southampton)
One of precious few players to emerge from this Southampton wreckage with anything resembling credit, Walker-Peters again impressed going forward with three of his side’s eight shots. But he summarily failed to stem the Brentford tide at the other end, aside from making the most fouls of any player at St Mary’s.

CENTRAL MIDFIELD: Sam Morsy (Ipswich)
Not really that bad at all, and particularly dependable in possession, but the foul to concede the first penalty was certainly a choice.

CENTRAL MIDFIELD: Joe Aribo (Southampton)
A mixed bag of Aribo, from the four chances created to the loss of possession leading to the first goal. He does not really feel like a midfielder suited to a Premier League relegation battle.

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CENTRAL MIDFIELD: Edson Alvarez (West Ham)
Might point a finger in the vague direction of Mohammed Kudus for a sub-optimal pass which he failed to control and Manchester City capitalised on to score a fourth.

Cannot, however, apportion any blame for pulling out of a header and ducking with his back to the ball on the edge of the box in the build-up to the opener. It does not get much more withering than an Andy Gray “oh, that’s poor, that’s shocking”.

CENTRE-FORWARD: Mohammed Kudus (West Ham)
Stationed on the right of what could technically be called an attack of sorts, Kudus could not be faulted for endeavour with five shots but none were on target and better passing options were available a couple of times.

He and Alvarez can decide who was to blame for that mistake for Phil Foden’s goal, but after reports of a bust-up with his manager a few months ago, Kudus might not be disappointed that responsibility will ultimately fall on Lopetegui.

CENTRE-FORWARD: Ollie Watkins (Aston Villa)
Skied a late chance to score goals in consecutive Villa games for the first time since September, having also given the ball away for Leicester’s equaliser.