Dismal Hammers well beaten… again
West Ham turned in a dismal performance at the London Stadium on Sunday as they lost 2-0 to Brighton, leaving them without a win, and without a goal, in three league games.
The Hammers rarely threatened against Graham Potter’s side, who have been something of a bogey team for the Irons; they have not beaten the Seagulls since 2012.
Thilo Kehrer made his debut after signing for the club from PSG earlier this week but he conceded a penalty within the first 20 minutes.
He threw himself into a slide tackle on Danny Welbeck in the box, and Alexis Mac Allister scored the spot-kick, sending Lukasz Fabianski the wrong way.
There really wasn’t anything else of note in the first half, but on the hour mark David Moyes made a tactical change. He threw Gianluca Scamacca on for Pablo Fornals, essentially tasking him with partnering Mikey Antonio up front in a 4-4-2 formation.
It felt like a fatal error, as Brighton began to dominate and scored five minutes later. A brilliant Seagulls move led to Pascal Gross sending Leandro Trossard through on goal with a beautiful flick. He beat Fabianski one-on-one and made it 2-0.
Solly March should have added a third on the 78th minute but headed over when unmarked at the back post.
Tomas Soucek did force Robert Sanchez into two saves late on with two powerful headers but this was a desperate performance from the Hammers and there will also be concern over Vlad Coufal.
He had to be substituted after sustaining what appeared to be a really nasty head injury, and he had to be helped off the pitch by the medical staff, being replaced by Ben Johnson.
It’s now three games without a win in the Premier League. Something needs to change, particularly when it comes to adding creativity to the team. The Hammers threatened all to rarely and this was a really simple afternoon’s work for Brighton. Awful.