Moyes not alarmed yet, despite the ‘Brighton curse’

DAVID MOYES insists alarm bells aren’t ringing at West Ham, despite the winless and goalless Premier League club seeing ‘the Brighton curse’ bite them in the backside yet again.

Brighton have not lost any of their 11 Premier League meetings with West Ham, who struggled against Graham Potter’s superbly-organised side yesterday. Potter left the London Stadium praising his players, saying they capitalised on their opponents’ lack of confidence.

Moyes, meanwhile, suggested too many players are shying away from the challenge and pointed to the loss of captain Mark Noble as a reason why they seem to be lacking leadership on the pitch.

Following this flat performance, the West Ham manager said: ‘You were looking at that today and saying: “Come on, you take responsibility. You take ownership of it.”

‘I could name a few who I thought: “Come on, you bowed to that today and should have really taken it on.” ‘You will probably write it was a really poor performance and many wouldn’t disagree with you, but I think part of that is not as bad as maybe it looks. I hope I am right and hope you are wrong. I will only get proof of that in the coming weeks.

‘Alarm bells is too strong but the thing is we finished seventh and sixth (in the last two seasons) so we take positives from that.’

Moyes added that he only decided to start Thilo Kehrer on the morning of this match. The manager admitted afterwards that, in hindsight, the £10.1million summer signing was not ready for his full debut.

Moyes said:‘ I don’t think he was ready to start the game and he certainly wasn’t if you are talking about physically.’

Brighton are heading in an opposite direction. ‘There’s no secret,’ Potter said of their smart start. ‘If there was, I probably wouldn’t tell you either. ‘Probably they’re not the most confident because of the two defeats.’

On the ‘curse’, Potter added: ‘I have no idea. I’ve only been here for three years

so you can’t blame me for that!’