Match Preview: West Ham United v Brighton
Whenever a side who are out of form and desperate for a victory see the Albion’s name on the fixture list, they must lick the lips in anticipation. Bournemouth had taken just four points out of 36 before beating Brighton 3-1 at the Vitality Stadium last time out and here we are again, writing a match preview ahead of another clash with struggling opponents, this time West Ham United.
The London Stadium is currently enveloped by a strange mixture of anger and apathy. Some fans have upped their protests markedly against the West Ham board of David Gold, David Sullivan and Karen Brady as the Irons lurch towards the relegation zone.
Others seem to have simply given up if the startling number of empty seats for their midweek defeat against Liverpool was anything to go by – three seasons of playing at a glorified Withdean Stadium will do that to you, as we well know.
At the start of January, this was exactly the sort of game that you’d expect Brighton to take three points from. What we’ve seen since Sheffield Wednesday eliminated the Albion from the FA Cup though has been dire; discussions about Graham Potter’s ideas and tactics are being had very loudly by fans and suddenly, we look like genuine relegation candidates ourselves.
Win at West Ham and the gloom will be lifted slightly. Lose and those very uncomfortable comparisons to last season will carry even more weight.
A brief history of West Ham United
Founded in 1885 as Thames Ironworks FC, West Ham adopted their current name in 1900 and over the past 120 years they’ve been involved in some of the most historic moments in the English game. They took part in the first ever FA Cup Final at Wembley Stadium and in 1940, they won the Football League War Cup.
Their finest moment came in 1966, when the Hammers provided three of England’s starting line up for the Three Lions World Cup Final win over Germany. West Ham are incredibly proud of this fact and have dined out on “West Ham winning the World Cup” ever since, despite basic maths telling you that their players made up just 27% of the England team.
Another thing that they are very proud of is ‘the West Ham way’. Nobody really knows what ‘the West Ham way’ is, but based on the last 10 years, it involves stealing a ground at the taxpayers expense, fighting your own players on the pitch and hounding out any manager who is vaguely successful for not being fashionable enough.
West Ham United this season
Speaking of unfashionable bosses, the Irons have taken the interesting step of reappointing a man that they deemed to not fit ‘the West Ham way’ two years ago to once again save them from relegation. David Moyes rode to the Hammers’ rescue in the second half of the 2017-18 season and was promptly rewarded by not having his contract renewed.
Moyes’ replacement was Manuel Pellegrini, who was himself then sacked at the end of December after 18 months at the helm. It’s all a bit of a mess, really – and it’s being orchestrated in part by Lady Brady, a woman who with no sense of irony appears on our television screens for three months every year sneering at other people’s lack of business acumen on The Apprentice.
Brighton’s head-to-head record with West Ham United
Although there have been 66 meetings across all competitions between Seagulls and Hammers, only 19 of those have taken place in the Football League. We didn’t meet in an actual league game until 1978. Our away record against the Irons is particularly poor with only two victories in the East End of London.
The first was the infamous 1-0 win under Mark McGhee when the hosts had 17 shots on target and we managed one. The second came two seasons ago when Chris Hughton’s side played West Ham off the park to win 3-0 at the London Stadium. A reminder that it wasn’t all parked buses and handbrakes away from home under Hughton.
Before 1978, we’d been regular opponents in the Southern League with results that provided a preview for the future relationship between Brighton and West Ham. The Hammers always tended to be dominant and that’s continued to this day with the overall head-to-head reading 17 wins for Brighton, 19 draws and 30 successes for the Irons.
Brighton and Hove Albion’s head-to-head record with West Ham United
Last six meetings
• Brighton 1-1 West Ham United (Premier League, 17/08/19)
• 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)
As you can see, Brighton have developed a bit of a hoodoo over West Ham since winning promotion to the Premier League in 2017. The Hammers are yet to beat the Albion in the top flight, with Brighton taking 11 points out of a possible 15.
Team news
We know that Shane Duffy is out having undergone a minor operation to remove a blood clot in his leg. Brighton looked a lot more lively away at Bournemouth once Leandro Trossard, Solly March and Aaron Connolly had come on in a treble substitution, so it will be interesting to see whether those three start at the London Stadium.
We’re also writing this match preview before the transfer window closes, which could mean Brighton have many exciting new faces signed for the trip to West Ham. We might even win a bidding war for Alexis Mac Allister, which would allow us to actually use our own player.
Okay, so realistically there is more chance of me taking Jennifer Lawrence out for sushi than there is of any of that happening. And even if we do sign someone new or win a race against ourselves to bring in Mac Allister, it seems unlikely that Potter would throw them into the starting line up less than 24 hours after they arrived. But a girls gotta dream, right?
West Ham United’s key player
Unfortunately for West Ham, their star man Lukasz Fabianski has spent most of the season out injured. As a result, they’ve lurched from one clown to the next in goal, including former Millwall goalkeeper David Martin, who we last saw throwing March’s off-target free kick into the back of his own net in the 95th minute of an FA Cup Quarter Final at the Den.
Declan Rice is a promising young player who seems to have gone off the boil a bit recently while Felipe Anderson is suffering from a severe case of second season syndrome having scored just once all year from midfield – he notched 11 times in 2018-19 after signing for a cool £40 million from Lazio.
A good WeAreBrighton.com memory of West Ham United away
We might be 16 years on from that ridiculous 1-0 win at Upton Park, but it still makes me smile to this day. How on earth did we win?
A bad WeAreBrighton.com memory of West Ham United away
The FA Cup third round has thrown up many great moments for the Albion down the years, but seeing Carlos Tevez versus Kerry Mayo was not one one them. While we did get a sneak preview of just how good a player Tevez would go onto be once he left West Ham, it was a chastening experience all round for Brighton in a 3-0 defeat.
Our favourite player to play for Brighton and West Ham United
Bobby Zamora. Who else?
What we like about West Ham
Many of the residents of Albert Square are West Ham fans, including landlord of the Queen Victoria pub Mick Carter. He’s going through a bit of a difficult time at the minute, what with his wife Linda having become a raging alcoholic over the past few months, so hopefully the Irons can turn a corner to give him a bit of joy back in his life. Although not until we’ve played them, of course.
Prediction
It can’t be any worse than Bournemouth, can it? A 1-1 draw, which would be a marginally better result for Brighton than it would for our hosts.
