Jan Bednarek's second goal in three games helped Southampton come out on top in an enthralling five-goal thriller against West Ham at the London Stadium.
It is now five games without a win for the Hammers, who came from behind twice to level, only for Saints to grab a first victory in seven league matches.
The visitors made early pressure tell inside 10 minutes as Mohamed Elyounoussi fired past a sprawling Lukasz Fabianski from the edge of the area after being fed by Kyle Walker-Peters.
Elyounoussi remained a threat on the break but squandered a good chance just past the half-hour mark. After connecting with Nathan Redmond's pass and skipping past Craig Dawson, he failed to connect with the finish and shot straight at Fabianski.
Fraser Forster was finally forced into action six minutes before half-time when Nikola Vlasic drove forward and struck to his left. The Saints keeper reacted well to parry, with the rebound evading everybody.
Four minutes after the break, Jarrod Bowen's corner was won by Dawson and substitute Michail Antonio, who had returned after a bout of Covid-19, was alert to head in from close range to make it 1-1.
Moments after Declan Rice's shot whistled past the post at one end, Armando Broja was brought down in the area at the other. After checking the pitchside monitor following a VAR review, Kevin Friend awarded the penalty, which James Ward-Prowse converted.
West Ham instantly hit back again, this time through Said Benrahma. He ghosted in at the back post to slam home Bowen's cross.
Yet the twists kept coming as defender Bednarek rose highest to nod Ward-Prowse's pinpoint free kick into the bottom corner, giving Southampton the lead for the third and final time after 70 minutes.
Elyounoussi later said, "It's about time we won. We've been working really hard the past few weeks. In the second half West Ham took over a bit and they were the better team for about 20 minutes. Fraser [Forster] in goal was amazing today so credit to him and everyone."
On set-pieces, the attacker added: "It's part of the game. We work hard at it so it's great to see we succeed. We played a good game today with the ball as well, I think we can do that more. It's a tough game to come here and play West Ham in their home ground.
"We're not looking at the table at the moment, we just focus on training and the next game and the next game is in less than 48 hours so we need to just go home and recover."
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