West Ham have a chance to finish the weekend at the top of the Championship table if results go their way
Experienced Premier League referee Michael Salisbury has been selected to take charge of West Ham United’s match against Southampton on Saturday. The match at the London Stadium pits both teams against two teams hoping to play top-level football next season.
West Ham enter the weekend in second place in the Championship table, one point behind the league leaders. Swansea following their win at the Liberty Stadium last weekend. Southampton are eighth – the final play-off spot – but would have finished fourth had it not been for the four-point deduction over Spygate.
Salisbury, 41, has already managed three games in the Premier League this season, as well as one in the Championship. He handed out seven yellow cards in three top-flight games – Sunderland v Fulham, Leeds v Newcastle and Hull v Everton – but picked up eight when West Brom hosted Watford in early September.
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Salisbury has refereed eight West Ham games in the past – seven in the Premier League and one in the FA Cup. He handed out two red cards in those games, both coming in the same match, when Rhian Brewster and Vladimir Joufal were both sent off as David Moyes’ Hammers drew at Sheffield United in 2024.
Most recently Salisbury was in charge in West Ham’s 2-2 draw with Brighton in December. He awarded three penalties in the match, Brighton scored one of the two goals and Lucas Paquet turned the hammers.
Salisbury was also the man in the middle in 10 Southampton matches. Eight of those were Premier League games, with the Saints winning one and losing the other seven.
The last time he took charge of one of those games, he awarded a penalty to Hampshire, in 2025 in a 3-1 victory for the Londoners, with a goal scored by Tottenham’s Matys Thel. The previous year he sent off Southampton’s James Breen in a Championship game away to Ipswich Town.
“West Ham” and “Southampton” have already met once this season, in the second round of the Carabao Cup. The Hammers won 4-1 at St Mary’s with young striker Joshua Ajala scoring his first senior goal of the match.
The last league meeting between the teams was near the end of the 2024/25 Premier League season. Jarrod Bowen put the Hammers ahead early in the second half, only for Lesley Ugochukwu to equalize late in stoppage time.