No goals, no noise, nice lightshow: West Ham 0-0 Brighton photos
What a soul sapping experience it must be to watch football at the London Stadium on a regular basis. Miles from the pitch, no atmosphere with one of the only saving graces being it does a good pre-match light show – as these fan photos from West Ham 0-0 Brighton show.
On this occasion, there were no goals to go with the lack of noise. The Albion were the dominant side but could not put one of their 22 shots beyond Alphonse Areola and so had to settle for a point from their trip to the East End.
This did at least extend Brighton’s unbeaten record at the London Stadium to seven games. You have to go back to April 2012 for the last time an Albion side lost away at West Ham, the infamous 6-0 defeat on what proved to be the Seagulls’ final visit to Upton Park.
The first half of West Ham 0-0 Brighton was as drab as the final score would suggest. The second half, however, was a different story.
Brighton racked up chance after chance and only some poor finishing and inspired goalkeeping from Areola ensured that the boos from West Ham fans were not much louder come the final whistle.
Amongst those to miss for the Albion were Pascal Gross with a routine header, Danny Welbeck with a shot repelled by Areola and James Milner firing the rebound from that one wide.
A goal would have been a fitting way for Milner to mark his 632nd Premier League appearance, taking him joint-second on the all-time list alongside Ryan Giggs.
Evan Ferguson dragged just wide, Gross could not connect with a Jakub Moder cross and the Magic Man from Poland himself skied over.
The final chance fell to Adam Lallana, who did brilliantly to create some space for himself. Lallana came closer than anyone to breaking the deadlock with his subsequent effort, drawing the save of the night from Areola.
Brighton fans left with a mixture of frustration at not having won – but with the positives of a first Premier League clean sheet of the season and only having to visit this Withdean-Stadium-on-steroids once-a-year, rather than call it home.
If you have any photos you would like included in our West Ham 0-0 Brighton gallery, please e-mail them to wearebrighton@hotmail.co.uk or tweet them to us @wearebrighton
