OH I DO LIKE TO BE FIVE MILES FROM BESIDE THE SEASIDE
West Ham 2 Brighton & Hove Albion 2
Brighton have won at Newcastle and Aston Villa so far this season in the Premier League but have yet to win at their remote Amex seaside resort, so it’s a pity we’re not playing them there.
First shock of the day before a ball is miskicked is to see Ben Johnson coming in for Pablo Fornals. So the one side West Ham have never beaten in the Premier League in six meetings and who are 17th to West Ham’s 10th are going to be treated like they’re in the top five. Moyes has demonstrated, not for the first time this season it has to be said, that he can see something in the game ahead that no one else can see.
And guess what? Brighton play most of the first half as if they’re the home side. The fact that they have yet to win at home may have been some kind of counter intuitive strategy from Moyes, but just when the critics are beginning to think that it might have worked, Neil Maupay puts the home visitors ahead on the stroke of half time. And that is after a relatively eventless half for both sides.
Rice finds Bowen, one of our two home strikers this afternoon, and in his surprise at finding himself in the Brighton half and in possession, he gives the ball away to the opponent’s captain Lewis ‘Slam’ Dunk who finds Maupay, still in his own half. 23 seconds later the ball is in the back of the West Ham net. One minute to half time, and a goal that will guarantee two second half substitutes from Moyes. Good for West Ham’s chances over the ninety minutes that Brighton punished their first half tactics before the half was up. Maupay, Brighton’s number nine, is their top scorer, but hasn’t scored for nine matches. Some symmetry there perhaps. So Moyes has to fix his own leak.
The second half begins with a substitute apology for the first half to West Ham fans everywhere, with Lanzini and Yarmolenko in for Noble and Bowen. Within three minutes the selection error becomes obvious as West Ham have taken control of the game. An issue with Yarmolenko in his recent appearances for the Hammers has been that he always looks like he’s trying to work the ball onto his better foot, even when it’s already there. This afternoon he’s wearing gloves. Lanzini looks like he’s just had a shot of whatever it takes, and his appearance and involvement speeds up the team’s passing. Soon Haller is getting in a goal bound header, the first effort on target for the Hammers in 170 minutes of Premier League action.
On the hour, West Ham get the equaliser that they have been threatening to get, scored by the man making his first start in a West Ham shirt. A man who has played for them since he was seven years of age. Yarmolenko finally finds his right foot (in this case, his left) and curls a cross in that creates turmoil in the Brighton defence before Johnson,set up by Lanzini, calmly strikes the loose ball home.
I know what you’re thinking. Now West Ham push ahead with the advantage and secure the winner. But this is the opposition that does not accept its fate, and returns to bite you in the hand.
But before that happens, I feel it should be mentioned that in the thankless position of target man for an ammunition-less first half Hammers side, Sébastien Haller, who has won most of the aerial balls up to him, but with no one to direct his headers on to, has had nothing to show for his efforts. His success at Eintracht Frankfurt was playing off his striking partner, but the club haven’t yet given him a match fit one to team up with, a fact still being missed by most of the Hammerati.
Brighton now have a rare corner on 70 minutes, which is taken short by Trossard to March, whose cross finds the captain ‘Slam’ who ‘slams’ the loose ball into the roof of the net after he’s patted it to the ground with his left elbow off Soucek’s attempted headed clearance. VAR should sort this out. I’ll spare you a printout of the rules, but it should be disallowed. It isn’t. #VARcrashfootball
West Ham teams from the previous four seasons at this ground might have surrendered to their fate and gone on to concede a third. But even bad tactics can be adjusted, and the team that are good enough to capitalise on such an adjustment will do so. For all the online moaning, Hammers are good enough this afternoon to come back a second time, though it takes a further ten minutes of Brighton possession and West Ham patient play before the moment comes.
Benrahma has been warming up for five minutes, but before he can make an entrance, West Ham equalise. Lanzini and Haller link up well for a twenty plus pass move that ends in a corner which Cresswell takes, and Slam’s attempted clearance merely proves an assist to Soucek’s powerful header from close in. The two players are joined at the hip this afternoon for goal bound action at each end. Not only that, but the Czech’s goal is his fourth in eight games, a pretty decent return.
Brighton have a couple of chances at the other end, but Hammers are playing reactive today and will have to save their proactive selves for midweek visits to Southampton and Everton. Call me naive (and with the benefit of hindsight, you almost certainly will) but after extracting the tooth of a point from this self-inflicted game problem, I feel that the Hammers may well get something from both visits.
1 Lucasz Fabianski, 3 Aaron Cresswell, 4 Fabian Balbuena, 21 Angelo Ogbonna, 5 Vladimir Coufal, 41 Declan Rice, 28 Tomas Souček, 16 Mark Noble (c), 31 Ben Johnson, 20 Jarrod Bowen, 22 Sébastien Haller
Substitutes: 7 Andriy Yarmolenko, 10 Manuel Lanzini, 9 Saïd Benrahma
Scorers: 31 Ben Johnson, 28 Tomas Souček
