West Ham vs Brighton match report: Hammers face dropping into relegation zone as away team sweeps to victory
West Ham 0 Brighton and Hove Albion 3: First away win for Brighton since promotion to Premier League heaps more pressure on West Ham manager Slaven Bilic
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Your support makes all the difference.A well-deserved first away win for Brighton since their promotion to the Premier League heaped more pressure on West Ham manager Slaven Bilic. He had insisted that his team was starting to feel at home at the London Stadium, but both for him and the club's frustrated fans, this must have felt like a move back towards square one.
The Hammers were weakened by the absence of the suspended Andy Carroll but would still have expected to beat a side who had previously taken only a single point on the road this season. Instead they produced an inept and hesitant performance and remain uncomfortably close to the wrong end of the table.
Brighton had to defend at times, but nowhere as much as they must have expected, and they grew in confidence as the game went on. Glenn Murray put them ahead in the tenth minute with his first goal of the season and their £13.5m record signing Jose Izquierdo doubled the lead with his first goal for the club two minutes into first-half stoppage time. Murray added a third from the penalty spot in the 75th minute.
Javier Hernandez was able to start for the home side despite a tight hamstring, while Brighton gave Izquierdo his second start after an impressive substitute appearance against Everton on Sunday. It was the Colombian winger who had the first shot at goal after four minutes, but he blasted his first-time effort well over the crossbar following a corner played to the edge of the penalty area.
Brighton continued to have the majority of possession against a strangely lethargic West Ham and after ten minutes they were ahead. There seemed little danger as Pascal Gross flighted in a free kick from the left after Pedro Obiang had fouled Lewis Dunk. But Murray got free of his markers with surprising ease to head unchallenged past Joe Hart and into the bottom corner of the net. It continued a remarkable run for Gross, who had had a foot in all Brighton's previous goals this season, either as scorer or creator.
It also woke West Ham up. and they forced a series of corner kicks. None troubled Brighton goalkeeper Mathew Ryan, although Manuel Lanzini saw a shot deflected over the bar for another flag kick after finding a surprising amount of space in an otherwise well-drilled Brighton defence.
The pace of Michael Antonio on the right looked likely to be West Ham's most potent weapon, but even when he was able to escape his marker, the defenders closed down the options in the centre. One cross from Pablo Zabaleta found its way through to Hernandez, but Shane Duffy blocked his shot on the turn. And a raised flag denied the Mexico striker when Cheikhou Kouyate threaded a diagonal pass through to him.
It was one of only a few occasions in the first half when the ball had found its way through the yellow wall of Brighton defenders, and things got even better for the visitors in first-half injury time. At first it seemed they had missed a chance to go in two ahead when Murray was played through only to hit his shot straight at Hart. But within seconds, Izquierdo gained possession on the left, cut inside Zabaleta and Pedro Obiang and curled a shot into the far corner. Hart dived and got a hand to the ball, but to no avail.
Bilic had to change something, and elected to bring on Ande Ayew in place of Kouyate at the interval. But it made little difference and a free kick by Lanzini, hit wastefully high from a promising position, seemed to sum up West Ham's evening. And their woes increased with 15 minutes to go. Seconds after Hart had saved from Murray, the chance created by Anthony Knockaert, the forward was tripped by Zabaleta and got up to hit home the penalty.
The stadium emptied, except for the area where the Brighton fans loudly celebrated their team's 50th top-flight victory and their first on the road since March 1983.
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