West Ham United suffered their heaviest defeat of the season on Saturday with a 4-0 loss to Brighton and Hove Albion.
Alexis Mac Allister’s first half penalty gave the Seagulls the lead at the Amex Stadium, before second half strikes from Joel Veltman, Kaoru Mitoma and Danny Welbeck inflicted further damage onto the Hammers.
As results elsewhere meant that West Ham stayed in 16th and still have a two-point advantage over the current relegation zone, here at the talking points from the Sussex south coast shocker.
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A disastrous defeat
West Ham headed to Brighton knowing that they had 11 years of history going against them, having failed to win in all 11 of their previous Premier League meetings against them prior to kick-off.
Early on, it looked like West Ham’s hopes of a maiden Premier League win over the Seagulls was going to be quite the task, not helped when Mitoma found himself bundled over in the penalty area by Jarrod Bowen inside the opening 20 minutes.
Solly March’s long spraying pass found Mitoma on the left, despite Hammers right-back Johnson seemingly having a routine clearance to make that he failed to do. The Japanese ace controlled the ball, skipped past Johnson and into the box before Bowen’s tracking run led to him fouling Mitoma from behind. Mac Allister made no mistake in converting from 12 yards, despite Alphonse Areola diving the wrong way on his first Premier League start in 14 months.
West Ham, forced largely to try and make things happen on the counter attack, had themselves two first half chances on the counter attack, both of which forced goalkeeper Jason Steele into action.
The first saw an unorthodox volley into the ground from Declan Rice led to Said Benrahma charging on the counter attack and although he was tackled, Bowen took over possession and bared down on goal, firing a well-hit effort on goal brilliantly, only to be denied by the knew of Steele.
The Brighton stopper was called into action moments later when Tomas Soucek’s shot on a tight angle was saved by the leg of Steele.
West Ham had those chances, but Brighton’s warning signs for further damage continued before the interval, with Johnson forced to clear at the back post to deny Mitoma doubling Brighton’s lead before half-time.
With West Ham struggling at the break, Moyes opted to make a change at the interval, with Pablo Fornals coming on in place Benrahma. It was less than a minute into the second half where West Ham’s supporters were chanting Benrahma’s name, not for the first time this season when he’s not been on pitch.
While the first goal came from a penalty, the second was from a corner kick. Mac Allister flicked on at the near post and the ball glided through an empty six-yard box before a substitute Veltman chested into an empty net, with Johnson giving the Dutchman a good three yards of space.
The second goal led to frustrations growing among the West Ham team. Soucek found himself booked for a late foul on Moises Caicedo before three minutes later, Bowen was also cautioned for diving in a failed attempt to win a penalty. Rice also found himself booked, West Ham’s third in five minutes, when lunging in on Mac Allister.
West Ham were forced into a defensive change midway through the second half as Angelo Ogbonna injured himself while blocking a cross, leading to Kurt Zouma making his first appearance in six weeks. However, seconds after coming on, Brighton carved an outstanding passing move through Brighton, leading to Gross teasing a ball through the box and Mitoma again getting the better of Johnson to tap in at the back post.
In the final 20 minutes and with a three-goal advantage, only one side ever looked like adding another goal to the match and it was not the Hammers. Substitute Danny Welbeck added more despair onto the Hammers late on when his shot from distance gave Brighton their fourth of the afternoon, the final knockout punch, although the damage had been done long before then.
West Ham’s wait to try and beat Brighton in a Premier League game now goes on for at least another five months, that is of course if the Hammers manage to stay in the Premier League for next season.
From Moyes chants to Moyes out
In the first half at the Amex Stadium, after Max Allister had already given the Seagulls, the travelling Hammers fans had started to sing David Moyes’ name for the first time in a while, a sign that perhaps last week’s 4-0 drubbing of Nottingham Forest had gone some way to restoring the fans’ support in him following a season where plenty of pressure has been put into him.
That appeared sign of support quickly faded in the second half, firstly, at the news of Benrahma being taken off at the break.
As Brighton continued to soar in the second half, those supportive chants seemed a long way away, with them replaced instead with chants of “you don’t know what you’re doing” and you’re getting sacked in the morning,” chants which the home fans joined in with.
Whenever Moyes and West Ham seem to be on the brink of trouble this season, they have won crucial games to get away from that, home victories over Everton and Nottingham Forest in the past two months being prime examples of that, but the defeat and the manner of it quickly highlighted how this season, certainly domestically, has grabbed the headlines for the wrong reasons on the whole.
With a trip to AEK Larnaca this week in the Europa Conference League to come, a good win there is needed, not only to show faith that good things can still happen this season, but also to build back some confidence after the heaviest league defeat West Ham have suffered in over three and a half years.
Ben Johnson’s display
After a solid display as a full-back on both sides against Forest and 90 minutes at right-back against Manchester United, Johnson started again at right-back with Thilo Kehrer (illness) and Vladimir Coufal (heel) both sidelined.
Tasked with trying to nullify one of the Premier League’s most dangerous dribblers in Mitoma, Johnson had a day to forget, having been at fault for all of Brighton’s first three goals.
He may not have given away the penalty for the opener by Mac Allister, but the foul from Bowen on Mitoma came as a result of Johnson not clearing a routine header when Mitoma had not even challenged for it.
The second goal, from a corner, saw Johnson leave the man he was marking on the back post and Veltman was able to cheat into an empty net to double Brighton’s tally.
For the third goal, again, Mitoma got the better of Johnson to convert from close range at the end of a superb team move, with Johnson struggling all afternoon to get the better of him.
With Kehrer and Coufal out, Moyes did not have a way of changing Johnson out of the game, but Mitoma certainly gave him a nightmare afternoon and one he will not look back on too fondly.
A lucky escape
While West Ham suffered their worst defeat of the season, and by twice the size, results elsewhere meant that they are not actually any nearer to the bottom three, or have fallen a league place.
With Leeds United and Bournemouth losing at Chelsea and Arsenal respectively, West Ham remain in 16th place and still two points clear of the bottom three with just 13 league games remaining in their season. However should Everton avoid defeat at Nottingham Forest on Sunday, West Ham will only be a point clear of the drop zone and will drop to 17th if Everton win.
One thing of concern however will be Southampton edging closer to safety after their win over Leicester City moved them off the foot of the table.
That victory over the Foxes moved them up to 19th and only a point off safety, meaning the race for safety is continuing to get tighter.
Gianluca Scamacca’s role
Italian striker Gianluca Scamacca will have been left wondering what he has to do to get on the pitch after watching on as his side suffered a 4-0 loss to the Seagulls.
With Antonio suffering with a knock, Scamacca was the only attacker on the bench, but he was not bought on against the Seagulls, managed by his ex-Sassuolo boss Roberto De Zerbi.
Signed for £30.5million in the summer from Sassuolo, Scamacca has watched on from the bench in his three matches back in the Premier League squad from the bench without coming on, handing Danny Ings his first 90 minutes in a West Ham shirt.
If Antonio is still absent for the trip to Larnaca, you would suspect that Scamacca should be handed a start in Cyprus. If not, you can only wonder what his future holds if he does not get a decent midweek runout in the Europa Conference League.
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