West Ham 0-2 Brighton: Mum, it’s happened again
And so that famous saying from Benjamin Franklin once again came to pass at the London Stadium, where it finished West Ham 0-2 the Albion – Nothing in life is certain except death, taxes and Brighton never losing to West Ham.
11 times now these sides have met in the Premier League. 11 times the Seagulls have avoided defeat.
Whether it is Graham Potter or Chris Hughton in the dugout. Leandro Trossard, Marc Cucurella or Gaetan Bond at left back.
Dale Stephens or Moises Caicedo in the middle. Glenn Murray or Danny Welbeck up top. Those happy hammers are never happy when they face Brighton, opponents who they cannot beat for love nor money.
West Ham 0-2 Brighton continued the hosts disappointing start to the Premier League season. Played three, lost three, none scored is sure to be of concern to David Moyes in a campaign where they had been tipped to be the most likely gatecrashes of the top six in place of Manchester United.
Might that title now fall to the Albion? Since the start of April, only champions Manchester City have beaten Potter’s Seagulls.
Arsenal, Spurs, Wolves, United (twice) and now West Ham (twice) have all been vanquished in that time. In their past 11 matches, Brighton have beaten every side they have faced who finished above them in the Premier League in 2021-22.
The turnaround in form after six consecutive defeats and a horrid 0-0 draw with Norwich City coincided with the Premier League debut of Moises Caicedo. Food for thought for Tony Bloom if United do show their hand and make a bid for the midfielder.
With £127 million banked in transfer fees in the last 13 months, do Brighton really need to sell another key player, one who has made such an obvious difference, unless United are willing to do something silly and offer £100 million or more?
And when we say silly, that might well end up being the going rate for Caicedo in the not-too-distant future if he takes the Albion into Europe and stars at the World Cup with Ecuador.
Just as important as the emergence of Caicedo has been Danny Welbeck finding fitness to lead the line.
Dat Guy and his abilities as a lone striker allows Potter to cram his team full of central midfielders and deploy Trossard on the left, where he looks so dangerous.
No opponent has yet come up with a suitable solution of stopping Brighton when they play this way, except for City whose petrodollars rarely require Pep Guardiola to outthink anyone these days.
Just buy the best and most expensive footballers in the world and Bob’s your uncle. Or in this case, Sheikh Mansour is your sportswasher.
The Albion have also discovered what it is to be clinical away from home. Scoring two goals from two shots would have been unthinkable during the xG nightmare of 2020-21, a pipe dream on a par with marrying Taylor Swift or being given a lifetime of free KFC.
That is what happened at the London Stadium (two shots, no free KFC). Brighton were ruthless and it made a nice joy to experience the boot being on the other foot for once.
Normally, Seagulls supporters are the ones ruing not getting on the scoresheet from 13 shots on goal and losing to opponents who take both their opportunities on target.
West Ham meanwhile have registered 38 shots in the Premier League in 2022-23 for that aforementioned return of a big, fat zero. Sympathies with Hammers fans, we know what you are going through.
Brighton took the lead on 21 minutes and it was a delight to see Alexis Mac Allister heavily involved. For reasons that remain totally baffling, Mac Allister has begun taking a bit of flack from some of the less intellectual Albion fans on Twitter who question what he brings to the team.
Versatility and a footballing brain unlike many other Brighton players is the simple answer to that. He has had the opportunity to showcase the first of those traits since the departure of Yves Bissouma, assuming some of the duties of the Albion’s former number eight.
It was Mac Allister who won possession from cat-loving Kurt Zouma and then released Trossard down the left. Trossard galloped away to feed Welbeck, whose speed took him past Thilo Kehrer and caused the Hammers’ new German centre back to bring down Dat Guy.
Referee Anthony Taylor pointed to the penalty spot. VAR confirmed the foul had taken place inside the area and Mac Allister duly converted the spot kick, approximately three miles away from where the Albion support were located at the opposite end of the London Stadium.
West Ham came out for the second half determined to get back into the game. Brighton had to weather the storm, which they managed thanks to the efforts of Joel Veltman and Adam Webster in particular.
Needless to say, Caicedo was also in fine form shielding the defence. Declan Rice is one of the best midfielders on the planet and yet he scored just a 3.94 on the BBC player ratings.
Caicedo had done a similar job on Rice in May’s 3-1 Albion win at the Amex. The England international had run the show on that occasion, dominating to help the Hammers into a 1-0 half time lead.
Bissouma departed with injury at the break. Caicedo took over making duties of Rice and Brighton sauntered to the victory which secured ninth place in the table.
If the Seagulls can produce more moments of magic like their second goal at West Ham, then that record breaking finish can be easily eclipsed this time around.
Mac Allister was again involved with a forward pass into Pascal Gross. Der Kasier produced a brilliant one-touch flick which sent Trossard galloping away and he duly beat Lukasz Fabianski one-on-one.
Potter played his part, too. West Ham’s domination was broken by the introduction of new signing from Villarreal Pervis Estupinan in place of Adams Lallana and a switch to a back four.
Estupinan enjoyed a promising 30 minutes or so on the pitch. It is impossible to judge a new signing in such a short time, something Chelsea fans might want to consider too in light of the criticism dished out to a particularly wild-haired Spaniard.
There was a wry smile at WAB Towers when a message came in from a Blues supporting friend as Chelsea were turned over 3-0 at The Leeds United: “Why didn’t you tell us Cucurella was shit?”
With reactions like that, Cucurella must be wondering whether he was wrong when telling his wife as they drove past Stamford Bridge that time it was his dream to play at such an amazing stadium. Poor Marc.
Whilst Cucurella was busy having a bit of a nightmare at Elland Road (he wasn’t allowed to take any free kicks either, unlike at Brighton where he apparently took them all) his replacement Estupinan was coming close to claiming a debut assist.
A cross from out on the right found March, who should have done better then heading over the bar at the far post.
That miss might have proven costly were it not for two excellent Robert Sanchez saves in the space of 60 seconds towards the end.
Vladimir Coufal and Jarrod Bowen both had headers turned away by Sanchez, earning his second clean sheet out of three this season. What’s that saying? Attacks win you games, defences win you titles.
If Brighton played West Ham every week, the Albion would be crowned Premier League champions.
Sadly, there are 18 other teams in the top flight of English football. That means on current form, we will have to settle for only European qualification instead.
