Brighton 1-3 West Ham: Gross tops ratings on record breaking day
There was not very much to cheer for the Albion in Brighton 1-3 West Ham but the man who topped the player ratings did at least write a piece of Seagulls history.
Pascal Gross scored his 27th Premier League goal for Brighton, taking him above Glenn Murray and Neal Maupay as the club’s leading goal getter in the competition.
Football was of course invented before Sky Sports came along in 1992. Michael Robinson therefore remains the Albion’s record top flight scorer with 37 plundered between 1980 and 1983.
Could Gross yet overhaul Robinson? Age would not appear to be a barrier for Der Kaiser, who does not have to worry about the impact on his game of losing pace.
Gross has also played some of the best football of his career since Roberto De Zerbi arrived. If he can keep that going for another two seasons, then eclipsing Robinson might well be possible.
Having procrastinated for 150 words on Gross and record breaking, we now have to address what happened to the Seagulls against West Ham.
David Moyes got his tactics spot on, which coupled with some below par individual showings sent Brighton to a first defeat in 13 against the Hammers.
Games in which the Albion have lost often produce the most interesting player ratings, and that is very much the case with these from Brighton 1-3 West Ham.
Bart Verbruggen – 5.08
Five shots of note faced resulted in conceding three goals on his Brighton debut. That might be a harsh assessment as there was little he could have done about any of the clinical finishes from West Ham, but the jury is out on whether De Zerbi’s plan to give his goalkeepers a 50-50 split of matches is a good idea.
James Milner – 4.69
West Ham had clearly decided to target breaking at pace down the right hand side where Milner was, which in turn played a part in why Adam Webster was so exposed as to look like he had never played a game of football in his life. His experience might have been put to better use as one of the two holding midfielders for this particular game.
Adam Webster – 2.85
One of those individual defensive performances we will be talking about for years and not in a good way. Bullied relentlessly by Michail Anotonio, Webster was directly at fault for the first West Ham goal and could have done much more to prevent the other two. Has a tendency to struggle against physically imposing centre forwards like Antonio, whereas Jan Paul van Hecke has enjoyed his best games in a Brighton shirt in such scenarios – like when Erling Haaland came to the Amex in May.
Lewis Dunk – 5.54
Almost scored with a second half header clawed away by impressive West Ham goalkeeper Alphonse Areola. Did not make the same costly errors as Webster but this was not a performance which he will look back on fondly.
Pervis Estupinan – 6.23
Lost Jarrod Bowen for the second West Ham goal. He was already in credit by that point though having charged from left back to right back to make a goal saving block in the first half. Decent going forward too, including when having strong appeals for a penalty waved away.
PASCAL GROSS – 6.69
Gross said afterwards he did not care about writing that little bit of history as Brighton’s top scoring Premier League player as he would much rather have won the game. He was the most likely player to make anything happen, drawing two good saves from Areola before finding the back of the net. It was a little mind blowing to see some Albion fans debating whether he should be an automatic pick in the aftermath of a defeat in which he was the best Brighton player on the pitch.
Billy Gilmour – 6.31
Solid rather than spectacular. Had two first half efforts, one drilled wide and the other blocked by James Ward-Prowse. Could he have given the defence a little more protection when the Hammers are blissfully countering? Perhaps.
Solly March – 5.15
After two brilliant performances which left him as the top scorer in the Premier League, this felt like a damp squib. We have come to expect match winning moments from March and those were lacking on this occasion.
Danny Welbeck – 4.85
Dropped in a little deeper as a number 10 with Julio Enciso injured and Joao Pedro on the bench. It did not really work, adding weight to De Zerbi’s comments on Friday that Brighton need an attacking player as well as a Moises Caicedo replacement before the transfer window slams shut.
Kaoru Mitoma – 6.54
You could feel the excitement around the Amex whenever Mitoma got on the ball following last week’s Diego Maradona-esque goal against Wolves. He was the Albion’s biggest attacking threat which was enough to push him into second place behind Gross in the Brighton 1-3 West Ham ratings.
Evan Ferguson – 6.31
On another day with better finishing and against a goalkeeper less inspired than Areola, he might have walked off with a hat-trick. Which kind of summed up Brighton’s evening perfectly.
Adam Lallana – 4.85
Good in possession as he passed the ball with his usual diligence. Was not able to slice open a West Ham defence who stuck rigorously to their task.
Joao Pedro – 5.62
Some moments of promise when he was on the ball in the final third but nothing he tried really came off. Still looks a better option than Welbeck at 10, mind.
Simon Adingra – 5.08
Could just copy and paste what has been written for Pedro above and use it for Adingra.
Joel Veltman – 5.62
Brighton looked better defensively with Veltman on the pitch, although it admittedly would have been difficult to look much worse. Should come into De Zerbi’s thinking for Newcastle on Saturday.
The WAB Player Ratings are formulated using marks out of 10 given by Brighton fans via Twitter. To have your scores included, follow We Are Brighton on Twitter and look out for the player rating thread after each game.
