It’s the West Ham Way to hold an unbeaten Chelsea, thrash Macclesfield 8-0 in the cup and beat Manchester United 3-1 four days later yet lose to an out of form Brighton the following week.
We all know the drill by now! West Ham build up your expectations to lull you into a false sense of security to believe they have turned a corner then knock you down with a killer punch to the stomach, twas ever thus. That is the life of a Hammer.
The first half against the Seagulls lacked intensity and passion almost if we believed that Brighton were there for the taking and we just needed to turn up.
Brighton had other ideas, they weren’t there to play football and they made it very difficult for us to play football either, they sat back and tried to get us on the break.
Yarmolenko and Anderson were knocked off the ball too easily in the first half and Brighton’s 38 year-old show defender showed up many of West Ham’s younger players.
Yarmolenko was partially to blame for Brighton’s goal but where were the centre-backs? Marko Arnautovic looked out of form and the turning point for me in the game is when his impressive volley effort from a West Ham corner failed to go in. It wasn’t going to be our evening!
Arnie appeared to be limping later on and I am not sure he is fully fit despite what Pellegrini says about him.
I had a bad feeling about this game before kick-off which I put down as nothing more than a gut feeling. Brighton is our new bogey team to replace Everton and Murray is our new bogey player to replace Lukuku.
We could have ended up in tenth place in the Premier League with a 2-0 win but we slip to 15th place behind Palace as Brighton leapfrog us to twelfth spot.
Southampton and Fulham both two points behind use have yet to play so could yet push us down to 17th place before the international break begins.
Some things never seem to change and last night sums up West Ham to a tee as you say.We Will beat Spurs next time out to carry on that tradition.
Unfortuantely, unless there is a total mindset transformation, there are many such bumps to come.
It is exactly the same problem every season, mainly with overseas coaches, intransigence when it comes to tactics and formation.
Also, there are still too many players who seem to think the game is already won when they have not “heard of” the opposition.
To think you can play the same team, the same way against Brighton as you did with ManU etc is naievity in the extreme.
All Brighton had to do was play as the away team, compete, pack and stand their ground at the back and that negated West Ham’s one way of playing.
Particularly, Anderson, Yarmelenko and Masuaku were weak; Masuaku being an onlooking, defensive liability at the best of times.
Watching Noble and Yarmelenko dancing round to get the ball onto their only good foot, is a true joy!
Unfortunately, I could not spell “unfortunately”, either…………
Back down from outer space without a parachute . But that is what we get as Hammers fans
And nothing has changed despite spending £100M and appointing a top Manager . It’s always been the same for what seems like forever . What is Wrong at West Ham ?? . Is it us fans expecting too much or is there a deeper , unfathonable reason ?? . If Pelligrini can sort out the Teams mentality he will be worth every penny . If he can’t , well who knows . Most of us were expecting a win against Brighton , but most of us were also half expecting a result like this . G.od it’s hard work being a fan . You have to love it though .
COYHAMMERS