HALL OR NOTHING

Haller can score great goals but not enough of them and his timid performance helped Brighton get the upper hand and gave Moyes a reason to get buying in January

FRUSTRATION Dunk punches the turf & is consoled by Potter after the final whistle

Sebastien Haller tries hard enough in Michail Antonio’s absence, but the Ivory Coast striker has not been able to justify his £45million price tag.

If West Ham didn’t wonder why a bigger club hadn’t stepped in for him in that summer of 2019, they do now. Haller has scored just three goals in the Premier League this season and only 10 in 45 top-flight appearances.

The odd bicycle kick here and there doesn’t compensate for the lack of consistent finishing that would have seen the Hammers at least a couple of places higher up the table.

This draw keeps them in mid-division when, in a very ordinary campaign, they could have found themselves in an extraordinary position. And, if David Moyes’ hard work is to mean something going into the next five months, then he needs more up front.

Haller was far from the only disappointment here. The normally hard- working Jarrod Bowen was hooked at half-time.

His ineffective display was more eye-catching because it was the opposite of what Hammers fans have been used to from him since his arrival 12 months ago.

Haller has needed an answer for his critics for some time and has been unable to find one.

The run of games he has had while Antonio has been absent has offered him the opportunity to stake his claim. He can’t, however, rival Antonio’s industry, his hold-up play, or his willingness to put himself where it hurts.

Yes, he does need more in terms of service but top strikers also tend to make their own luck.

Haller has been far too easy to silence in Premier League games.

It was Brighton shouting loudest at half- time after their striker Neal Maupay opened the scoring. Dan Burn’s run from defence enabled him to play the ball in, low, from the left.

Maupay tried to play in Leandro Trossard and, when the ball rebounded back to him, he turned and swept it home. Had there been a crowd in the London Stadium, they would not have been happy.

Substitute Andriy Yarmolenko, on at the break for West Ham, crossed to cause chaos in the box on the hour.

Fellow sub Manuel Lanzini failed to reach it but managed to scoop the ball back to Ben Johnson for his first Premier League goal. At that stage West

Ham looked set to go on and win. But Brighton defender Lewis Dunk survived a VAR shout for the use of his arm from a corner before ramming the ball high into the net.

Tomas Soucek, whose attempted clearance had come off Dunk, had plenty to be aggrieved about but he had the last laugh as Dunk returned the favour from Aaron Cresswell’s corner with eight minutes left. The ball in bounced off the unfortunate Dunk’s head for Soucek to guide home. Graham Pott e r ’ s Brighton side are continuing to learn the hard way that you don’t get extra points for artistic impression in the Premier League.

One win in 13 games tells its own story and their next three games are against Arsenal, Wolves and Manchester City.

So they must be fearing a run by one o f the sides below them.

IT’S CRASH AND BURN Haller just isn’t up to it against giant Brighton defender Burn