Saints will have to produce something the likes of which they haven’t managed all season if they are to avoid relegation.

Defeat to West Ham at the London Stadium was never going to spell the end entirely. Saints still have seven games remaining, they can still stay up.

However, this match did feel crucial, and it was surrendered in such a manner that it is hard to make much of an argument that Saints will retain their Premier League status, because to do that performances and results have to improve to a level, and consistently, too, that has been sadly missing.

The West Ham game felt so massive for a number of reasons.

The first was the most obvious, that Saints started the day third from bottom and were playing the team immediately above them.

With so many winnable fixtures having come and gone with disappointing results, and some very tough looking matches remaining, they couldn’t really afford to squander another opportunity.

Then take into account the new manager ‘bounce effect’.

Saints really needed that momentum from Mark Hughes replacing Mauricio Pellegrino to carry them through.

It’s not Hughes’ fault, none of this is his fault, he is doing the best he can in trying circumstances.

But Saints were desperately hoping that they would get some kind of a lift, albeit all logic tells you that a group of players who have been a certain way for 30 games are not suddenly going to magically improve beyond recognition.

With that bubble having burst, it’s now on to face Arsenal and Chelsea, and suddenly pressure on Saints to achieve a very difficult result, or, preferably, results. If not, then it could almost be over.

What’s frustrating is that it seemed the perfect time to face the Hammers.

The headlines in recent weeks have been about how they are a club in crisis.

They had lost their three previous matches coming in to face Saints, had all the pitch invasions and disunity surrounding the board, and were ravaged by injuries.

Saints and Hughes knew if they could start strongly then there was every chance the crowd would turn and this could be a victory that lifted Saints upwards, from where they might not look back.

It made it all the more disappointing then that Saints produced an abysmal first half performance. It was about as bad a 45 minutes as they could ever have produced. Even worse than at Newcastle.

There were similarities with that display – a lack of character, of leadership, some almost unbelievable errors, and basically handing away the game before the half time whistle had even blown.

Despite the Hammers coming out strongly and Saints looking sluggish, you wondered if it might be Saints’ day when a patched up and makeshift West Ham side lost Michail Antonio to injury early on.

But any thought that might be the case was dispelled as they took the lead on 13 minutes.

It was an infuriating short corner from Saints that was their undoing.

Mario Lemina ended up giving the ball away cheaply under pressure and Mark Noble played Cheikhou Koyate in down the right on the counter attack.

His cut back found Joao Mario just outside the area. He needed a couple of touches to bring the ball under control but did and fired a fierce half volley past Alex McCarthy.

It was so nearly 2-0 moments later as Marko Arnautovic got in behind with worrying ease, but he placed a shot wide of the far post when he should have scored.

The reprieve was short lived, however, as West Ham did convert another chance on 17 minutes.

Saints were sloppy in possession and when Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg was robbed by Koyate, Mario was given the chance to cross from the right.

Arnautovic drifted between Jack Stephens and Cedric Soares and though his header was superbly saved at point blank range by McCarthy, he reacted first to turn home the rebound.

Incredibly it got even worse before the break as West Ham scored again in stoppage time.

This was embarrassingly easy as Arthur Masuaku was given time by Cedric to measure an outswinging cross from the left that found Arnautovic strolling in past Wesley Hoedt, and he made no mistake with a first-time side footed volley from a few yards out.

After a first half in which Saints didn’t even manage a shot of any description, things could only get better.

Shane Long replaced Manolo Gabbiadini and Saints did show a modicum more spirit and adventure, albeit against a Hammers side who were by then playing a containing game.

But they only briefly threatened to get Charlie Austin into the match, and still couldn’t muster a shot on target.

Indeed, the closest either side came in the second period was a curling Arnautovic shot that went wide and Noble’s remarkable volley on the slide that clipped the top of the crossbar.

It really was a day that Saints didn’t want, and, more importantly, didn’t need.

They need to find something, from somewhere, if they are to get out of this now.

It is going to have to be the sort of stuff they haven’t managed all season.

If not, then time will run out very quickly indeed.