Match Preview: Brighton v West Ham United
Two sides with massively contrasting results from the first weekend of the Premier League season meet at the Amex as Brighton host West Ham United.
While the Albion were busy hammering Watford 3-0 at Vicarage Road, West Ham were getting turned over 5-0 by Manchester City in what was admittedly another mesmerising performance from Pep Guardiola’s champions.
Chances are that this week will be very different. Still, if Brighton want to survive in the Premier League for another year come May, then this is the sort of home fixture that they need to be collecting maximum points from.
Graham Potter will know that as he takes charge of Brighton at the Amex for the first time. Let’s hope this is the start of a brilliant new era at the real home of football.
A brief history of West Ham United
West Ham United are strange football club. They’ve never finished higher than third in the top flight and their roll of honour reads three FA Cups won in 1964, 1975 and 1980. Yet despite this pretty bog standard roll of honour, their supporters seem to consider themselves one of the biggest clubs in the country.
Why? Well, it might be because they’re one of eight teams to have never fallen below the second tier of English football. It could also be because they apparently won the World Cup in 1966, contributing three players out of 11 to the England side who lifted the Jules Rimet trophy.
They are also very proud of the ‘West Ham way’. Throughout their history, the Hammers have played attacking football and brought players through their academy; although since their move to the London Stadium in 2016, the ‘West Ham way’ seems to have become having punch ups with each other in the stands or invading the pitch and fighting their own players.
Much of that unrest has come about because of the ownership of David Gold and David Sullivan, who many West Ham fans despise for moving them from their former home of the Boleyn Ground.
That’s understandable. The Boleyn was a proper ground and they’ve essentially swapped it for Withdean on steroids, although some would point to the fact that West Ham looking as secure in the top flight as they have done for generations as proof that the move has worked.
West Ham United last season
West Ham were impressive last season from the moment they appointed Manuel Pellegrini. The former Manchester City boss is a likeable character and a good manager who has the added bonus of looking like Sam the Eagle from The Muppets.
Pellegrini led the Hammers to a 10th placed finish in a campaign in which they were never really bothered about those of us towards the bottom of the table. The only bad part was a shock 4-2 FA Cup exit to AFC Wimbledon which Pellegrini described as “a disaster”, a refreshingly different view to most top flight managers who would say after such an event that they didn’t give a shit about the FA Cup.
They look to have invested wisely this summer with striker Sébastien Haller joining from Eintracht Frankfurt for a club-record £45m. Haller and his new teammates didn’t enjoy the best opening day of the season in losing 5-0 at home to Manchester City, but given that City and Liverpool are so far ahead of the rest of the Premier League, that might not be a terrible result.
Head-to-head
Despite West Ham being formed in 1895, Brighton being formed in 1901 and the clubs being no more than 70 miles apart, the Albion and the Hammers didn’t meet in the Football League until 1978. There were plenty of clashes in the Southern League and during wartime football however, where West Ham were pretty dominant in chalking up a total of 19 wins from 39 games.
That puts them on 30 wins to the Albion’s 17 overall with 18 draws. You probably won’t want to hear this, but the Hammers have racked up the goals down the years as well, scoring 108 times compared to Brighton’s pretty paltry 79.
Brighton and Hove Albion’s head-to-head record with West Ham United
Last six meetings
• West Ham United 2-2 Brighton (Premier League, 02/01/19)
• Brighton 1-0 West Ham United (Premier League, 05/10/18)
• Brighton 3-1 West Ham United (Premier League, 03/02/18)
• West Ham United 0-3 Brighton (Premier League, 20/10/17)
• West Ham United 6-0 Brighton (Championship, 14/04/12)
• Brighton 0-1 West Ham United (Championship, 24/10/11)
Well, that looks a lot better doesn’t it? Since the Albion’s promotion to the Premier League in 2017, we have taken 10 points out of a possible 12 against West Ham with Glenn Murray scoring four times. The only blip on the record came at the London Stadium last season when, despite taking a 2-0 lead, we left with Stratford with only a point.
That took place on January 2nd. Little did we know it was a precursor to an absolutely terrible 2019 which would result in the end of the line for Chris Hughton.
Team news
It’s hard to see how Potter can change a team that has just gone and won 3-0 away from home with such a dominant performance. One possible alteration might be Leandro Trossard coming in for Pascal Gross on the right of the front three.
Potter said in the aftermath of the Watford game that Gross got the nod because he offered Premier League experience, which would be important in the opening game on the road. Back at the Amex, the Albion boss might decide to go for an even more attacking lineup by injecting Trossard’s pace and trickery into his starting XI.
West Ham United’s key players
In West Ham’s comeback from 2-0 down last time we met, the Albion had an absolute shocker in trying to deal with the host’s wingers. Michail Antonio’s 63rd minute introduction in particular caused chaos, with Bernardo having a complete nightmare to the point where be effectively subbed himself off with an injury.
What made this all the more ridiculous is that we’ve faced Antonio on what feels like over 40 occasions throughout the lower leagues with the likes of Marcos Painter and Jim McNulty never having a problem with him.
Anyway, it will be interesting to see what happens should Pellegrini go for width against Potter’s formation with its lack of traditional full backs. With West Ham knowing that they need to stop Murray at the other end, the man mountain Issa Diop could be crucial to their chances of success.
A good WeAreBrighton.com memory of West Ham United at home
Jose Izquierdo and his goal of the season winner two seasons ago. We’ve made a lot out of how good Murray is against the Hammers, but Izquierdo’s two best games in an Albion shirt have come against them as well. Shame he’s got a knee like Barbara Windsor’s.
A bad WeAreBrighton.com memory of West Ham United at home
Monday night football is bad enough due to the fact that it makes putting away 10 pints somewhat inadvisable. It’s a hundred times worse though when Kevin Nolan scores the only goal of the game and celebrates by doing a chicken dance in front of the North Stand, as happened when the Hammers made their first trip to the Amex in October 2011.
Our favourite player to play for Brighton and West Ham
How could anyone say anything other than Bobby Zamora?
What do we like about West Ham?
EastEnders is a bit good at the minute, isn’t it? Keanu is having babies with Louise and her step mum Sharon, Stacey has attempted to knock Phil’s head off with a wrench and Callum has recently realised he is gay but is going to marry Whitney anyway. The only thing we don’t like is Max and Ruby being together, because it’s just not realistic that someone like Ruby would end up with a bloke 30 years older than her who looks like a baked bean.
Prediction
Lots of Albion fans seem to think that last week’s victory has turned us into Manchester City. One swallow does not a summer make and West Ham are more than good enough to bring us back down to Earth very quickly. In fact, it would be typical Brighton for that to happen. 0-0.
