West Ham 2-2 Brighton: When one point gained is also two points dropped

It is rare in football for a result to feel simultaneously like one point gained at the same time as being two points dropped. Brighton & Hove Albion are enjoying a very bizarre 2020-21 campaign, so perhaps it should not come as a surprise that their 2-2 draw at West Ham United ticked that particular box.

On the one hand, drawing away from home against a side 10th in the Premier League table is impressive. Any point on the road is a good one in the top flight of English football and the Albion have now only tasted defeat on their travels at Everton, Tottenham Hotspur and Leicester City who all sit in the table’s top five. Impressive.

Yet on the other hand, West Ham were awful in the first half. Brighton were in total control yet failed to make their domination count – again – leading by only one goal going into the break.

A David Moyes double substitution caught Graham Potter out and the Hammers were much the better side at the start of the second half. Even so, the Albion showed great character to regain the lead following a cheap equaliser gifted to the hosts by some terrible defending from a cross into the box.

Worse was to come defensive wise when West Ham equalised for a second time from a set piece. It was a case of take your pick of who to blame as Lewis Dunk, Adam Webster, Dan Burn, Danny Welbeck, Robert Sanchez and Ben White all shared some culpability for the seventh goal conceded from a corner or free kick in the 2020-21 season so far.

Graham Potter shares culpability too. Edward Scissorhands was on Channel 4 at the same time as West Ham 2-2 Brighton was showing on Sky Sports and honestly, you would rather have a hand job from Ed than watch the Albion try and defend set pieces with zonal marking again.

The main defence of Potter for Brighton sitting 16th in the table with only two wins under their belt is that he is not responsible for the chances which the Seagulls’ strikers are missing. We wrote as much back in November.

What Potter can be blamed for though is not doing anything to stop this torrent of opposition goals flooding in from set pieces through his insistence on using zonal marking.

He is the one who changes the team every week, playing individuals out-of-position. Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City have all been linked with signing Ben White because of his talents as a centre back. Where does Potter play him for Brighton in the 2-2 draw with West Ham? At right wing back.

Potter is the one who sets the side up to play with a tempo slower than The Queen in a 100 metre sprint. It is his style of play which dictates sideways pass followed by sideways pass followed by sideways pass followed by sideways pass. And he is the one who makes bizarre substitutions, which against West Ham included ending the game with no recognised striker on the pitch.

David Moyes had been equally negative in his approach at the start of the match. He named a team which looked set up to defend, as if West Ham were hosting prime Barcelona and not a Brighton side who arrived at the London Stadium having struggled to draw 1-1 with the 10 men of Sheffield United.

Whilst Moyes’ selection perplexed most, it did not come as a surprise to seasoned Brighton watchers. Opponents can let the Albion have as much of the ball as they like – in this case, 62 percent possession for the first 45 minutes – knowing full well that we rarely translate such dominance into something solid on the scoreboard.

Brighton are usually slow to start the second half too. The players are either bored by whatever Potter has to say or take some sort of sedative at the interval, which makes between the 45th and 60th minute the golden time to strike against the Albion.

Moyes wanted to soak up pressure in the first half then go on the attack in the second knowing his side would still be in the game when Brighton were at their most vulnerable. It was a plan that worked pretty well.

It may not have been so effective had Adam Lallana not limped out of the action at half time. Lallana was the main reason that Brighton had such control. He made two key passes, three successful tackles, 38 accurate passes and had 54 touches.

Steve Alzate replaced him at the break, recording zero key passes, 15 accurate passes and having just 25 touches. Alzate gave the ball away cheaply twice in dangerous areas within the first 10 minutes he was on the pitch.

There has been growing unrest at Alzate’s non-selection since October, another stick with which to beat Potter. The second half of West Ham 2-2 Brighton was a reminder that the Colombian still has a lot to learn about playing in a central midfield two in the Premier League, offering some justification for Potter using him sparingly in recent months.

The Brighton opener came from another player who has found himself out of the team recently. Neal Maupay has looked like a player short on confidence, so his excellent first half strike should do him the world of good.

Maupay’s goal was a result of something we have seen far too rarely from Brighton this season – a first time shot. The Frenchman latched onto a loose ball in the box and hit it on the turn past a surprised Lukasz Fabianski, highlighting the value of actually having a go at goal when a half chance presents itself rather than passing it around in an attempt to set up the perfect opportunity.

Like so many strikers, Maupay is a player whose goals tend to come in streaks. Now that he has ended his three month, nine game barren sequence, it would be no surprise to see him go on a little scoring run.

That would be very timely ahead of back-to-back home games against Arsenal and Wolverhampton Wanderers, opponents who the Albion have excellent Premier League records against.

West Ham’s first equaliser arrived on the hour mark. Substitute Andriy Yarmolenko swung over a cross which Sanchez failed to gather. None of the three defenders in blue backing their goalkeeper up were able to do anything to get the ball clear either, allowing Ben Johnson to fire home for his maiden goal in claret.

The goal did at least shake Brighton into life and there was something of a Christmas miracle when the Albion scored from a set piece of their own. Not only that, but it came via the much-maligned route of a short corner.

Leandro Trossard and the outstanding Solly March worked a little routine which saw March swing the ball over. In defending nearly as bad as Brighton’s, Tomas Soucek’s only succeeded in placing his clearing header straight into the midriff of Dunk who reacted well to smash the loose ball into the back of the net.

It was a poachers’ goal from the Brighton captain, the likes of which we have seen far too rarely this season. If Potter is going to insist on using his roulette wheel to select which player takes up which position each week, then fingers crossed it lands on giving Dunk a go as a centre forward sometime soon. Finishing like that puts the Albion’s centre forwards to shame.

Brighton had 20 minutes now to see the game out and pick up three vital points. That they failed to do so was once again because of defending which would make an Under 10s team blush.

With eight minutes remaining, Aaron Cresswell took a corner from the right hand side. It looked like the perfect delivery to defend; straight into an area in the six yard box where Dunk, Webster, Burn and Welbeck were defending.

Even if for some unknown reason none of those four players over six feet tall could head clear, the 6’6 figure of Sanchez should be eating balls like that for breakfast, especially as he has usurped Maty Ryan in the pecking order because his height is meant to lead him to be a more commanding presence.

Ryan would have been lambasted had he been in between the sticks for the two goals West Ham scored, and yet it was strangely quiet to the point of being a taboo subject to discuss Sanchez’s role.

Even when nobody cleared and Sanchez remained glued to his line, White could have actually marked Soucek so as to not allow him a free header from front and centre of the goal. Six players all bearing some culpability for conceding is in its own way quite impressive.

Brighton taking the lead for a third time never seemed possible after Soucek and West Ham had been given that late Christmas present. Potter certainly had little inclination to try and find a way to win, as ending the game with Alireza Jahanbakhsh playing as a lone striker indicated.

Beforehand, we would have taken a point from the London Stadium. By the full time whistle, it felt like two dropped on an afternoon where more questions were raised about the Potter era.

If Brighton stay up by a single point come May, then we will look back on West Ham 2-2 Brighton as a valuable point. If Brighton go down by two points, then this will be one of those afternoons that could prove very costly, such are the fine margins in the Premier League and such is this strange 2020-21 campaign which we are sitting through.