21 December 2024
West Ham 1 Brighton 1
West Ham welcomed a faltering Brighton to the capital for their pre-Christmas fixture. The Hammers had been denied a victory at Bournemouth during the week by an injury-time free kick. The visitors had gone four games without a win, seriously denting their impressive start to the season under Fabian Hurzeler. This was his first real test since taking over as manager.
Lopetegui’s side started well, with Bowen using his pace and skill down the right. As he strode into the box, he tried to poke the ball past Verbruggen but The Seagulls’ keeper made a routine block to deny him. In all fairness, it was the tightest of angles that the West Ham talisman had tried to score from but we’ve seen him surprise everyone before from a similar position.
It took a while for the visitors to get going, whenever they had the ball in the final third, West Ham were getting everyone back to form a claret wall for them to penetrate. Joao Pedro scooped a pass over everyone to Mitoma at the back post. The Japanese international struck a good volley but Fabianski got down well to deny him.
It was a strange atmosphere at the London Stadium, all too often reminding us of the game during the pandemic, where teams were forced to play behind closed doors. You could have found a better atmosphere in any UK high street opting to go Christmas shopping with your partner than The Hammers’ ground, that is for sure.
Bowen continued to cause Brighton’s defence issues. His close control when running with ball is a joy to watch and as he looked to poke a ball across goal, it almost deflected into the far corner off a Seagulls’ defender. Fortunately for the visitors it went narrowly wide and they went into the break on level terms. That seemed fair as neither side had created much in terms of scoring opportunities.
After the break the visitors looked to put West Ham under some pressure. Joao Pedro got into the box but his attempted pass was poor and cleared at the expense of a corner. This was a reoccurring theme in this game, it all looked good until that final pass. Something both managers will need to address in their Christmas morning training sessions.
Estupinan then lofted a high ball into the box. Dunk challenged Fabianski for it and it resulted in the loose ball dropping to Wieffer. He drilled home to get his first ever Brighton goal in the process. The Hammers felt The Seagulls’ defender was in an offside position when he challenged the keeper but a VAR review disagreed with that call.
In a game of little action, the visitors had got a goal and you would have not ruled it out being enough to take all three points at this stage. However, The Hammers came forward with Bowen once again and he shot from outside the box but Verbruggen made a routine stop. As the ball came back out Kudus headed home to draw the hosts level.
All too often we see this from keepers in the modern game. They make saves but parry the ball back into dangerous areas. More often than not, you will be punished at this or any other level. In a game of very few chances, we had seen two goals in seven minutes. It had not helped us deciding a winner at all, a draw was of no use to either team.
Brighton then had a massive chance to win the game. Van Hecke played a ball over the top for Minteh to run onto. He got to the byline and squared the ball, it took a deflection off a West Ham defender and struck the post and came back out. Mitoma was lurking at the far post but could not react at all as it seemed to surprise him when it came back out.
The Seagulls were starting to pile the pressure on the hosts. As the ball was played up to Ferguson, he held it up well, before laying it off to Ayari. His shot from six yards out was somehow blocked by the feet of Fabianski. Enciso tried to follow up but Todibo did well to get in the way. Hurzeler was wondering by this stage what his side had to do to win the game.
Since coming on off the bench, Enciso caused The Hammers lots of problems. However, they just could not find that killer instinct in front of goal. As a result, the points were shared in the capital. This match was the equivalent of opening the last window on your luxury chocolate advent calendar, only to find a dog biscuit inside.
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