Match Review: Brighton 1-1 West Ham United

RIP football. The beautiful game that we all know and love is gone, killed by VAR.

Brighton got their first taste of the video assistant referee in their 1-1 draw with West Ham United and, needless to say, it was a complete and utter shambles.

Why do people bother going to football? Why do we fork out an obscene amount of money each and every Saturday to watch 22 men kick a ball around on a bit of grass?

It’s because of goals. There are very few better feelings in the world than celebrating your new £17m winger lashing in an unstoppable volley from 20 yards on his home debut.

But because of VAR, it’s pointless celebrating. Every time you feel that rush of adrenaline as the ball hits the back of the net, you can’t get excited as it might not be a goal.

If a referee in a call centre in Uxbridge watches back a super slow motion replay and notices somebody is one millimetre offside or the ball brushes a finger, then the goal won’t count. So, why bother getting excited?

29,000 people inside the Amex were on their feet with 28 minutes played after Leandro Trossard crashed a brilliant effort past Łukasz Fabiański. Graham Potter was out of his seat and Maty Ryan was sprinting 80 yards down the pitch to join in the celebrations.

And then all that jubilation was crushed because Dan Burn had a toe offside. There’s no doubting it was the right decision, but very few linesmen in the world would have noticed it without some sort of super vision that you find only in the pages of an X Men comic. The West Ham defence certainly didn’t as not one player in claret and blue appealed.

Football is a game of fine margins and errors. That’s what makes it. Whether it’s David Stockdale letting a shot through his legs in the last minute of the season to cost you a league title or Mike Dean getting another decision horribly wrong, no footballer or referee is perfect and that’s why we love the sport.

VAR takes that away. If we’re going to use it, we might as well do away with referees and linesman completely and just have the game reffed in slow motion from Uxbridge.

There’s certainly no point in celebrating a goal anymore until said bloke in a call centre next to the M40 gives it a thumbs up.

What doesn’t help is the lack of information. The time it took from Trossard hitting the back of the net to the referee disallowing it was longer than a Wagner opera.

The big screens didn’t give any indication as to why the goal had been disallowed, which added to the anger. If Burn is offside, then show us. It’s a bollocks system as it is, but to leave supporters in the dark about what is going on makes it even worse. Oh, and then despite the five minute delay, we only had one minute of time added on. Work that one out.

It’a a shame because the VAR controversy took away from what was a promising first home game under Potter. It was bold, it was brave and without Fabianski and the bloke watching on television in Uxbridge, Brighton could have won by three or four. Much like last week at Watford.

Behind virtually everything good was Trossard. In one game, he did more than Alireza Jahanbakhsh managed in the entirety of last season. Whenever Trossard was on the ball, you could sense something was going to happen and his 65th minute strike was the least he deserved for an enterprising debut – once it had been checked by VAR, obviously.

West Ham offered little as an attacking threat and it was completely against the run of play when Javier Hernandez put them into the lead four minutes before Trossard struck. The Hammers only managed three shots on target, which made for a pretty comfortable afternoon for Lewis Dunk, Shane Duffy and the outstanding Burn.

With so little to do, Burn in fact turned his hand to attacking, popping up here, there and everywhere. He could have scored with a header in the first minute.

He then appeared on the left wing to deliver a cross that David Beckham would have been proud of. He carried the ball out of defence at times like Franz Beckenbauer reincarnated. It was little wonder that the sponsors (and we thank them for their fantastic support) named him as their man-of-the-match.

Fabianski’s save from Burn was one of a number of excellent stops that the West Ham goalkeeper made as the Albion rained 16 shots upon his goal.

Substitute Neal Maupay had the best of those when he was front and centre no more than six yards out, but he somehow contrived to miss the target. Trossard, Duffy, Solly March, Davy Propper and Dale Stephens were all denied by Fabianski.

Speaking of Propper and Stephens, this was the midfield duos’ best game for some time. Propper looked a real threat throughout as he see often does in the orange shirt of the Netherlands and was clearly enjoying the opportunity to get forward more than he was allowed last season.

Part of the reason he could do that was because of Stephens. Although he struggled last season in a 4-3-3 – as everyone did – we’ve never really got the Stephens hate.

He isn’t the most glamorous player, but every team needs someone like him. He breaks up play, he puts a boot in and he covers so much ground.

What he also does is get through a lot of unseen work which makes him the sort of player that you don’t really notice when he’s there, but if he wasn’t in the side you’d feel his absence.

The fact that Oscar Garcia, Sami Hyypia, Chris Hughton and now Potter have all had him as one of the first names on the team sheet says everything.

In that time, Stephens and the Albion have gone from 21st in the Championship to fourth in the Premier League. Four points from the opening two games is a good return. Beat Southampton next weekend and we’ll be laughing, well ahead of the run rate of a point a game which generally guarantees survival.

When Trossard’s disallowed goal hit the net, we were top of the table for the briefest of moments. Brighton have never, ever sat in first position in the top flight before and although that chap in Uxbridge snatched it away from us very quickly, hopefully it’s a sign that we’re going to spend a lot more time looking up the table than down it this season.

All the while moaning about VAR.