Jacob Steinberg was at the London Stadium tonight, and his report is in. Here it is! Thanks for reading this MBM. Nighty night.
That’s also West Ham’s fourth Premier League clean sheet in a row, and David Moyes speaks to Sky. “I’m thrilled with the result and the point … Brighton played very well and were the better side … we might have had the best chance in the game from Tomáš Souček and when that didn’t go in I thought we’re going to find a way of getting a nil … thankfully our players done a great job in getting that … when you play really good teams, which we have over Christmas, we’ve had to be really compact … be as organised as we can be to keep the opposition out … the boys at the back have done a brilliant job … my goalkeeper played very well … and we got a point for it … I’m really pleased we’ve got another clean sheet.”
That’s Brighton’s first clean sheet of the Premier League season. The most impressive member of their defence tonight, the exciting 18-year-old midfielder-turned-right-back Jack Hinshelwood, speaks to Sky. “It’s not really a relief … we’ve been really good defensively at times this season … we haven’t got the clean sheets we deserved … but today was a really solid performance … we limited them to very little and created a few chances.”
That was an instantly forgettable match. Brighton were the better side, and created nearly all the chances, but lacked sharpness up front. They’ll be happier with their performance; West Ham will be happier with their point. Fair to say the hosts missed Lucas Paquetá and Mohammed Kudus very much. The Hammers remain in sixth place, while Brighton leapfrog Manchester United to go into seventh on goal difference.
| Pos | Team | P | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | Tottenham Hotspur | 20 | 13 | 39 |
| 6 | West Ham | 20 | 3 | 34 |
| 7 | Brighton | 20 | 5 | 31 |
| 8 | Man Utd | 20 | -5 | 31 |
FULL TIME: West Ham United 0-0 Brighton & Hove Albion
It ends.
90 min +4: The match is ending as it started. A low-energy affair again.
90 min +3: Brighton are still hopeful of a dramatic late winner. They ping and probe. The clock not on their side, though, as West Ham hold their shape.
90 min +2: Ogbonna buys a cheap free kick and doesn’t hurry himself in getting up. West Ham clearly settling for the draw.
90 min +1: Mubama, who has hardly had a touch since coming on, nearly closes Steele down. Impressive pressing, but the keeper flicks the ball away just in time.
90 min: There will be five additional minutes.
89 min: Lallana spins delicately on the edge of the West Ham D and whip-cracks a shot towards the bottom-left corner. Areola gets down to stop brilliantly. So close to a late winner!
Updated
88 min: Brighton continue to probe, continue to press. West Ham can’t keep hold of the ball at all. They’re hanging on for a draw.
86 min: Milner crosses from the right, just by the corner flag. Gross once again can’t send a header goalwards, but the ball drops to Moder, rushing in. From ten yards, Moder clears the bar by some distance. Another big chance goes begging for Brighton.
85 min: Johnson, making his first Premier League start of the season, goes down with cramp. After a quick stretch, he’s good to continue.
83 min: Brighton have now had 28 touches in West Ham’s box; West Ham just eight in Brighton’s. The visitors look much more energised as they press for a winner. Moder whips a low cross in from the right; had Gross taken touch number 29, six yards out, he’d have surely scored. But his lunge misses by millimetres.
81 min: Lallana makes good down the right, reaches the byline, and pulls back for Ferguson, whose first-time flick from six yards is blocked by Ogbonna. Brighton asking the questions.
80 min: Joao Pedro jinks his way down the left and looks to break into the box, only for Alvarez to execute a perfect tackle and make off with the ball. That had to be timed just so.
79 min: Brighton continue to ping it around. Now Lallana is teed up on the edge of the box. A weak effort is deflected into the sky and back down into the arms of Areola. Brighton looking the more likely to snatch a winner right now.
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78 min: … and it nearly pays off, as Milner crosses from the left. Gross wins a header, but not for the first time tonight, miscues a decent chance. The ball sails harmlessly wide left.
77 min: Brighton pass it around in the patient style.
75 min: Webster pulls up injured. He can’t continue. He goes off, as does Buonanotte, with Moder and Lallana coming on.
73 min: West Ham make their first change of the evening; off goes Benrahma, on comes the 19-year-old Divin Mubama. A teenage rampage all over the land tonight.
72 min: According to Sky, Vladimir Coufal isn’t missing tonight because of a contract-based sulk, as reported before the match; he’s simply ill.
71 min: Milner crosses low from the left. Gross, rushing down the middle, extends a leg and nearly meets it on the edge of the six-yard box. Any significant deflection and Areola is beaten. There’s no significant deflection, and Areola gathers.
69 min: Ferguson nearly makes an instant impact. He juggles the ball to see off Alvarez on the edge of the West Ham D before fizzing a low drive inches wide of the bottom-right corner. Not sure Areola had that covered. Luke Littler isn’t the only teenage sensation showcasing his talent in town tonight.
67 min: Here comes that Brighton sub: Evan Ferguson on for Welbeck.
66 min: Joao Pedro crosses from the left. Hinshelwood rises at the far stick but can’t direct his header goalwards.
64 min: Gross juggles the ball inside the West Ham box but can’t work space for a shot. Something needs to change, and word is of Brighton preparing a sub or two. Here’s Kári Tulinius: “Men who are appropriately attired for a match between West Ham and Brighton have been running about on a football pitch for over an hour, but at no point has an actual sporting contest broken out. Everyone involved is taking no chances, and without risk there is precious little fun.”
63 min: Bowen’s pace down the right earns a corner. Ward-Prowse loops it in. Steele rises highest, above the static Bowen, to bravely claim amid a packed six-yard box. That’s authoritative keeping.
61 min: Benrahma dribbles down the left. His low cross is no good, but clanks off the back of Gilmour and drops to the feet of Soucek, six yards out. Soucek sticks out a telescopic leg but can only send the ball bobbling wide left. He should have scored.
59 min: Joao Pedro slinks in from the left, beats four players with liquid ease, then sadly shoots straight at Areola. Had he completed the easiest bit of his task, he’d have scored one of the goals of the season.
58 min: For the record, only Gareth Barry has played in more Premier League matches than Milner and Giggs. His total: 653.
56 min: Milner works down the left and sends the ball out for another goal kick. Speaking of the old boy, here’s Roland Nash: “Tonight is the night where James Milner’s legs catch those of Ryan Giggs to go second on the list of most Premier League appearances; 632 games they’ve played. They’d already played 120 odd by the time Luke Littler was born.”
55 min: Buonanotte and Pedro combine on the edge of the West Ham D. The ball breaks to Estupinan, who opens his body and attempts to steer into the bottom-right corner. Areola saves, then Milner skies the rebound. That’s better!
52 min: Hinshelwood crosses low from the right. The ball clanks into the armpit of the sliding Emerson, but Brighton aren’t getting the penalty they want. Natural position, all that. “The sixth and seventh placed teams duelling for a big three points and everyone involved would rather be watching darts,” observes Justin Madson. “This really is the Greatest League in the World™.”
50 min: Shame that half time came when it did. The last 15 minutes of the first half were decent enough. What went before was dismal, and the game’s slipped back into that uneventful mode. “I’ve had my half time pint, Scott, and I’m back,” reports Hogmanay’s Simon McMahon. “Though I might need to pop out again once or twice during the second half. That whisky can go right through me.”
48 min: Alvarez is nearly hunted down in his own box, but spins and sashays away from Welbeck – and trouble - with much elegance. The best skill we’ve seen all game.
47 min: The second half starts as slowly as the first one did. Meanwhile here’s the match-going Ian Sargeant again: “Tell Alan Smith that at £7.20 a pint, an ice-cold lager in the windy winter bowels of the London Stadium doesn’t appeal to the majority - a good number of whom would like him to have a word and get the darts on the big screens.”
West Ham get the second half underway. Improvements, please! “It seems Luke Littler Fever has not yet hit the USA,” emails Rob Coughlin. “I hate to overshadow this match but does anyone know how to watch the PDC semifinal here in the US???” Funnily enough, that very topic has just been covered in Rob Smyth’s live blog. Click here for the lowdown. (Get on it, sounds like it’ll be the best seven bucks you’ll ever spend.)
Half-time entertainment. You will come back for the second half, won’t you? You will, won’t you?
HALF TIME: West Ham United 0-0 Brighton & Hove Albion
Time for the fans to get that pint and pie.
Updated
45 min +1: Fornals is brought down near the centre circle. Ward-Prowse hits the free kick long to Mavropanos, just inside the box on the left. The defender volleys a low cross through the six-yard box. It’s begging to be bundled home, but nobody in claret gets anywhere near it.
45 min: There will be just one added minute. Small mercies. “I think the fans just want to go for a drink and a pie,” suggests Sky co-commentator Alan Smith.
Updated
44 min: Ward-Prowse has the ball at his feet, 25 yards out. The crowd scream for him to shoot. He resists the urge. The attack breaks down. He should have had a crack.
Updated
42 min: Milner swings a cross in from a deep position on the left. Gross gets to the dropping ball ahead of a confused Ogbonna, and should score, but can only direct his header straight at Areola. A huge chance spurned.
40 min: Johnson embarks on a determined dribble down the right, but can’t jink his way past the wily Milner. For a split second, there was a gap and a route towards the box, but Milner slammed the door shut with an experienced flourish.
38 min: Brighton take it down a notch. Some sterile possession. “Football’s 2024 has certainly begun getting its stomp on with such a fevered, high tempo, game at Anfield last night,” begins Bill Preston. “I felt massively for the Newcastle fans having an away fixture on a bank holiday woth an 8pm kick off on the other side of the country. Especially in the sheeting rain. Anyhow, that result will have definitely helped both Brighton and West Ham, two clubs I cannot begrudge their recent successes. I hope that it continues for a long, long while and leads to more thrilling heroics overseas.”
36 min: Pedro slips Welbeck into a bit of space down the left but upon reaching the box, the striker is unable to work space for a shot. Brighton come again, and Buonanotte takes a crack from the best part of 30 yards. The ball sails a similar distance over the bar.
34 min: Joao Pedro crosses into the West Ham box from the left. Ogbonna heads clear confidently. Bowen launches a counter, sending Benrahma off down the left flank. Benrahma cuts infield, drops a shoulder to make himself some shooting space, and sends a bouncing bomb inches wide of the right-hand post. Steele probably had that covered. Probably.
32 min: Gross wedges the free kick towards Welbeck on the left-hand corner of the six-yard box. Welbeck heads across the face of goal. Areola flaps the ball down for Hinshelwood, who swivels and shoots from eight yards … but only straight at the keeper, who demonstrates fine reflexes in blocking. Webster then slices out for a goal kick. The closest Brighton have come. This match took a long while to get going, but it’s good fun now.
Updated
31 min: Mavropanos flings in a long throw from the right. A game of pinball breaks out. Brighton hold firm and Buonanotte dribbles upfield on the counter. He’s got nobody with him, so keeps going. And going. And going. Eventually Johnson is forced to crudely bodycheck him, just to the right of the D. Free kick to Brighton, and Johnson goes into the book.
29 min: … Mavropanos tamely heads over. West Ham have finally woken up. Brighton have not.
28 min: Estipinan fails to deal with a shovelled pass down the right and allows Bowen another run at the Brighton box. Bowen can’t get a shot away this time, but play’s switched to the left and Ward-Prowse creams a shot goalwards. Steele does extremely well to block out for a corner, from which …
26 min: Ward-Prowse crosses from a deep position on the left. Soucek is free, six yards out, but can’t connect. Goal kick. But West Ham quickly come again, Soucek threading Bowen free down the right. Bowen takes a touch to enter the box and aims low and hard for the bottom-left corner. Steele fingertips onto the base of the left-hand post and away. Then the flag goes up in any case. That really is better!
24 min: Emerson cuts in from the left and takes a whack at goal. Scuff! Trundle! Goal kick! It’s saying something that the last couple of shots, one deflected, the other scuffed, qualify as That’s Better. But here we are.
22 min: Buonanotte finds a pocket of space 30 yards from goal. He takes a pop. The ball balloons off Ogbonna and briefly threatens to wrongfoot Areola, but the Hammers keeper adjusts well to gather.
21 min: A speculative long pass down the middle by Mavropanos releases Johnson. Steele beats him to the ball, just in time, chesting down on the edge of his box and clearing. Then the flag goes up for offside. All utterly inconsequential, but it’s the best we’ve had so far.
19 min: Buonanotte probes down the left to little effect. “Greetings from the game,” begins Ian Sargeant. “Most around us are just getting over the effort to get here given train, cos south and west are advising people not to travel. We were hoping it would delay Kudus’s flight.”
17 min: Brighton have enjoyed 70 percent of possession so far. “Come on you Irons,” the home fans sing, in an attempt to jolt their heroes into action.
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15 min: Roberto De Zerbi sits in the dugout ranting and raving in theatrical style. A stomp of the feet. He’s not happy with what he’s watching. He’s unlikely to be the only one. Neither team have managed to get going yet.
13 min: Bowen is sent scampering into acres down the left. His cross is weak and aimless and easy pickings for Steele.
12 min: Benrahma drops a shoulder and tries to make space down the left, but Hinshelwood and Gross double up on him and there’s no way past. Excitement at a premium right now.
10 min: Alvarez looks long for Bowen but Van Hecke intercepts. Then Estupinan passes back for Steele, who nearly miskicks into his own net, to the audible glee of the home fans, before blootering clear.
8 min: It’s all Brighton in terms of possession. They’re doing nothing of note yet. Patience a virtue.
6 min: … but other outcomes are possible, and now Gilmour clanks witlessly out of play, giving Milner no chance of taking up possession. The heart-not-really-in-it penalty shout apart, this has been a very quiet opening.
5 min: Pedro, Welbeck and Milner overlap each other down the left. Pedro attempts to break into the box but he can’t get past Johnson and Alvarez. A nice, smooth interchange up until then.
4 min: Brighton stroke the ball around the back for a while, and bang goes that aforementioned atmosphere.
2 min: Alvarez and Bowen combine crisply down the left. The latter cuts back for the former, who goes over Gilmour’s leg. A shout for a penalty, but it’s wildly optimistic, and neither referee nor VAR show any interest in awarding one. The correct decision, not that the home fans agree.
Brighton get the ball rolling. A fine early-evening-pints atmosphere at the London Stadium.
The teams are out! West Ham are in their famous claret and blue, Brighton wear their first-choice blue and white stripes. Pretty bubbles in the air. We’ll be off in a couple of minutes.
Roberto De Zerbi’s turn to talk to Sky Sports. “We have a very tough situation [with injuries] … we have numbers and quality of players enough to fight and win the game … West Ham have a different style of play than us, but every style is good if you get a result … our DNA is to keep the ball but we keep the ball to win the game … not because we love to keep the ball … at the end, we fight for the result.”
David Moyes speaks to Sky. “We’ve got injuries, a bit of illness … maybe if we played last night we’d have the African players available to us, but because it’s tonight we don’t have … so that probably sums it up! … we go into the game with a positive mood … players have an opportunity to show what they can do … we’re looking forward to seeing how that goes.”
The New Year: a time for hope, a time for dreams. David Moyes has his eye on a top-four finish and a place in the Champions League; Roberto De Zerbi will surely be hoping that Brighton’s first-ever major trophy is a European one. Our old friend Simon McMahon is at it as well, and he speaks of his ambitions for 2024. “Happy New Year Scott! I’m fresh from watching Dundee United ease to a 3-0 win at Arbroath this afternoon, a statement win if ever there was one. Morton are next to face the United juggernaut at Tannadice on Saturday. I’m not normally this confident, but I’ve got the title-winning whisky champagne on ice already. Scotland have the Euros in the bag too. Cheers!” Thanks, and hope the post-Hogmanay cocktail flu clears up quickly.
Breaking opinion. Brought to you with West Ham’s aforementioned impressive form very much in mind.
West Ham have won ten of their last 14 matches in all competitions. Brighton have only managed seven wins in their last 14, though two of those were against Ajax, so they’re in a pretty good place as well. As for the head to head, West Ham ran out easy 3-1 winners at the Amex back in August, but were thrashed 4-0 there in March, and they’ve not won this particular fixture since Brighton got back in the big time in 2017, the visitors winning twice and drawing the other four.
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West Ham make three changes to their starting XI following the 2-0 win at Arsenal. Said Benrahma, Pablo Fornals and Ben Johnson come in for Mohammed Kudus, who is off to the Africa Cup of Nations with Ghana, Vladimir Coufal, who was “outstanding” in the win at the Emirates but now has a cob on over his contract, and the injured Lucas Paqueta.
Brighton make two changes after their 4-2 win over Tottenham Hotspur. Adam Webster stands in for the suspended Lewis Dunk, while Pervis Estupiñán takes the place of Igor Julio.
The teams
West Ham United: Areola, Johnson, Mavropanos, Ogbonna, Emerson Palmieri, Alvarez, Soucek, Benrahma, Ward-Prowse, Fornals, Bowen.
Subs: Fabianski, Cresswell, Cornet, Ings, Coventry, Casey, Mubama, Orford, Laing.
Brighton & Hove Albion: Steele, Hinshelwood, van Hecke, Webster, Estupinan, Gross, Gilmour, Milner, Buonanotte, Welbeck, Joao Pedro.
Subs: Verbruggen, Dahoud, Lallana, Moder, Baleba, Ferguson, Boaitey, Kavanagh, Samuels.
Referee: Sam Barrott (West Yorkshire).
Our first XI of 2024 ⚒️ pic.twitter.com/qnn2HpHZwk
— West Ham United (@WestHam) January 2, 2024
TEAM NEWS! 🚨 Here's our starting XI to take on @WestHam in the #PL tonight. 👊
— Brighton & Hove Albion (@OfficialBHAFC) January 2, 2024
📲 https://t.co/S3j1TIeLz3 // #BHAFC 🔵⚪️ pic.twitter.com/8bt0ksBWyr
Preamble
Let’s face facts, it’s all about the darts tonight. But across town, seven miles south-east of Ally Pally, there’s also some hot Premier League action to be had, and it’d be remiss of us to ignore it. West Ham and Brighton are both enjoying themselves in the Europa League, and they’d quite like some more of that hot European action next season, thank you very much. With the former currently sixth in the Premier League and the latter eighth, that’s a dream very much within reach; there’s even been talk of the Champions League. Well, why not? All of which means there’s plenty to play for, which should make for a lot of fun this evening, as two upwardly mobile clubs go head to head. Kick off is at 7.30pm. It’s on!
| Pos | Team | P | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | Tottenham Hotspur | 20 | 13 | 39 |
| 6 | West Ham | 19 | 3 | 33 |
| 7 | Man Utd | 20 | -5 | 31 |
| 8 | Brighton | 19 | 5 | 30 |
| 9 | Newcastle | 20 | 10 | 29 |
Updated
