5 THINGS WE LEARNED LAST NIGHT
1 GLENN MURRAY is Brighton’s best header of the ball, so why did West Ham leave him free to score such a simple opener? It was a fine delivery from Pascal Gross, but with the number of bodies in the box, no one in claret and blue thought to mark the main man. Their set-piece defending needs work.
2 ANDY CARROLL’S foolish sending-off at Burnley hit home last night. One of Slaven Bilic’s rules is that injured or suspended players show their support, so Carroll was at the London Stadium, and he must have cringed watching inviting crosses go to waste. His physical presence was missed.
3 JOSE IZQUIERDO’S strike for Brighton’s second was exquisite — but Joe Hart should have done better. The England No 1 got a full hand to it and had to be stronger in that situation. Is it time to give Adrian a go? The West Ham’s second-choice goalkeeper is yet to feature in the Premier League this season.
4 BEFORE last night, Brighton had scored only once in four away league games. It was risky to try to shut up shop after scoring the opener but credit to manager Chris Hughton because it worked. Yellow shirts threw themselves in front of everything, survived the spell of pressure then scored for 2-0. Job done.
5 HELICOPTER by Bloc Party — with the lyrics of ‘Are you hoping for a miracle?’ — was the first song played at half-time. It said it all. They struggled to get the 56,977 crowd going here, a far cry from the last Friday home game, against Tottenham in May, when the place was buzzing as a 1-0 win ended their rivals’ title dream.