Match Preview: West Ham United v Brighton

Games with West Ham United have become something to really look forward to over the past 18 months for Brighton and Hove Albion fans.

The Seagulls gave two of their best performances of last season against the Hammers, winning 3-0 at the London Stadium and 3-1 at the Amex. They followed that up with a 1-0 success in Sussex in October in a game in which the Hammers were dominant but could find no way past Maty Ryan.

Can the run continue? This looks a much tougher task with West Ham in reasonably good form of late whilst a Wednesday night kick off on the first working day of the calendar year has to rank as one of the worst times to play a game of football – especially compared to last year’s Friday afternoon drinkathon around East London.

With our two next league fixtures against Liverpool and Manchester United, it would be a good time to put some rare away points on the board.

Who are West Ham United?
West Ham United are one of only six sides to have never fallen below the second tier of English football, spending 61 of the past 93 seasons in the top flight. As a result, they are considered one of the biggest clubs in the country. Their haul of major trophies reads three FA Cups, one European Cup Winners’ Cup and one World Cup in light of the fact that West Ham contributed three players to the England side that lifted the Jules Rimet Trophy, so if you ignore the other eight men on the pitch at Wembley that day, it was West ‘Am wot won it. Hammers fans are extremely proud of “the West Ham way”, which last season amounted to fighting each other in the stands of the London Stadium and even fighting their own players on the pitch. We’ll stick with the Brighton way, thanks.

What are they like now?
The tense atmosphere that gripped the athletics stadium in east London as David Moyes helped the Hammers stumble to Premier League safety after replacing Slaven Bilic has gone this season following the appointment of Manuel Pellegrini as manager. The former Manchester City boss was heavily backed in the summer transfer market and after a difficult start to the season, West Ham have been one of the form teams, winning six and drawing two since their 1-0 defeat at the Amex back in October. A top 10 finish looks more than achievable and with a bit of luck, they might even challenge for a European spot.

Which players should we be worried about?
Marko Arnautovic has been superb for West Ham since his £20m move from Stoke City in the summer of 2017, scoring 16 times in 45 appearances in Claret and Blue. The Austrian striker returned from a month out in the Hammers’ 2-0 defeat at Burnley on Sunday and will be a real danger, presuming two games in the space of three days isn’t considered too much for him. Felipe Anderson has also begun to show why Pellegrini forked out £40m for him, registering seven goals in his past 10 games from midfield while Declan Rice can be a dangerous opponent if West Ham can get him to boil.

What’s the Albion’s record against West Ham United like?
Although it feels like Brighton always do well against West Ham, that isn’t actually the case. The head-to-head shows just 16 wins from 63 games with the Hammers having won on 30 occasions, nearly half of the meetings. We’ve also only ever won twice in East London – last season’s brilliant 3-0 win at the London Stadium and the infamous game where West Ham had 137% possession and 312 shots on goal yet we managed to win 1-0.

What’s the best WeAreBrighton.com memory of West Ham United away?
It has to be the trip to the Boleyn Ground in 2004. We could live to be 120 (unlikely due to liver complications) and still not understand how the Albion came away with all three points that day. As goalscorer Guy Butters brilliantly said afterwards, “Coming off after the game, in the changing room everyone was just in fits of laughter. How did we win it?!”

What’s the worst WeAreBrighton.com memory of West Ham United away?
The Albion’s final visit to the Boleyn was an unmitigated disaster. Gus Poyet’s side were still in contention for a playoff place until visiting West Ham in April 2012 when Ricardo Vaz Tê had the game of his life. 3-0 down inside of 20 minutes, the game ended 6-0 to Big Sam Allardyce’s Hammers. We’d walked out after the third goal in favour of watching the Grand National in a pub next to Upton Park tube station, only for popular horse Synchronised to die after the race and a chair to come through the window sparking a mass brawl after the football had finished. To round off a spectacularly terrible day, one member of the WeAreBrighton.com team then fell asleep on the train home and ended up stranded in Seaford at 2am on a Sunday morning.

Whose played for both sides?
A couple of strikers with contrasting fortunes. Bobby Zamora fired the Albion to two promotions between 2000 and 2003 and then repeated the trick with West Ham by scoring the winning goal in their 2005 Championship playoff final win over Preston North End. Paul Kitson meanwhile scored semi-regularly for the Hammers before moving to Withdean, where he ran up a medical bill even bigger than the £350m the NHS is apparently denied by Britain being in the EU. Sod Brexit, we need to vote for Kitexit.

Other than football, what is West Ham famous for?
EastEnders is probably the best thing to come out of East London, with great characters like Phil Mitchell, Mick Carter and Alfie Moon (when he’s not too busy faking his own death to steal a baby) all finding the time to support the Hammers. Our very own Chris Hughton also comes from West Ham, but seeing as he has never filed for divorce on Christmas Day, exposed an affair using a family wedding DVD or come back to life 20 years after being shot by a daffodil while walking along the side of a canal, the Albion boss has to take second place to goings on in Walford.

Where’s the betting value for West Ham United v Brighton?
In the past nine meetings, both teams have scored on only two occasions with both teams to score no being available at 23/20. Glenn Murray also has a quite sensational record against West Ham, scoring six times against the Hammers over the course of his career. Should Hughton recall him at the expense of Florin Andone, then he is a best-priced 39/19 to strike anytime.

Prediction
This is actually a tough one to call. We’ve enjoyed some outrageous results over West Ham since promotion to the Premier League but that surely can’t carry on, especially against a Hammers side who were in good form before their wounding at Burnley on Sunday and will be looking to bounce back. We’re going 1-0 to the hosts.