West Ham 0-3 Brighton Five Things: Seagulls Soaring

Murray bags a brace – theguardian.com

A Glenn Murray brace helped Brighton & Hove Albion to a historic 3-0 win at West Ham United, who are struggling to perform in line with their pre-season expectations. Here’s five things from the game.

Gross epitomizes superior hunger

West Ham have a team of experienced Premier League campaigners, but with one or two exceptions, they lacked the hunger to play for one another. Second striker Pascal Gross showed a stronger work rate, using the right body shape to stop Manuel Lanzini and Pedro Obiang playing through the lines. Gross allied that raw enthusiasm with technical proficiency, his inch-perfect 10th-minute free-kick finding the head of Murray, who nodded home.

West Ham’s brief spell

For a five-minute period just beyond the first half’s midway point, West Ham played with some energy and lifted the home crowd. Lanzini and Obiang began to influence the game from deep, Michail Antonio and Arthur Masuaku stretched play out wide while Cheikhou Kouyate, initially a midfielder, pushed up top to provide a physical presence next to Javier Hernandez. Brighton were penned back in their own box but they survived that period unscathed, thanks to good defending from Bruno, Lewis Dunk, Shane Duffy and Gaetan Bong. The latter blocked Lanzini’s effort after a good ball to the back-post from Pablo Zabaleta.

Hart in mouth

It was in some ways a credit to Brighton that, while not always showing great attacking intent, they still managed to score three times. Joe Hart thought he had saved his side at 1-0 when he denied  Murray one-on-one, after Winston Reid’s ill-judged header gave the ball to Gross. Hart’s work was proved in vain moments later though, when Jose Izquierdo grabbed Brighton’s second. With no challenge from Zabaleta, a badly-timed one from Obiang and half-hearted defending from Jose Fonte, he unleashed an excellent right-footed shot that flew into top right-hand corner.

Slow second half

West Ham replaced Kouyate with Andre Ayew at the break but that change of system and personnel did not improve their performance, baring a close Lanzini free-kick on 65 minutes. They showed more drive in five minutes, alone, of the first half, than they showed in the entirety of the second. Given that most teams when losing apply more pressure as the game goes on, West Ham’s flat second half display is a damning indictment of the dressing room problems at that club.

Brighton finish with a flourish

Murray could have added a third goal after a tidy reverse pass from Anthony Knockaert, but was denied by Joe Hart. The England stopper’s save however only delayed the 34-year-old’s brace, which he completed from the spot after being tripped by a tiring Zabaleta on75 minutes. This was the club’s first top flight away win since March 1983: for all the valid question marks surrounding the future of West Ham United and Slaven Bilic, this evening belonged solely to Brighton.