Trossard has to be content with Brighton’s point
IN any other season, Leandro Trossard would be celebrating his first two goals at Brighton and and an excellent start in English football. Instead, he is making do with just the one but it does mean Brighton have four points out of six and are yet to lose.
Trossard found the net for the first time when he sent a volley past Lukasz Fabianski in the first half — only for VAR to rule it out after Dan Burn, who provided the assist, was deemed offside in the build-up. Trossard would need to wait until the 65th minute — 38 minutes after his first was chalked off — before a legitimate finish of his counted.
But by then West Ham had scored through Javier Hernandez. For West Ham, it is a decent point that gets them off the mark but they are yet to click.
But for Brighton and manager Graham Potter, well, this was an opportunity missed.
This wasn’t the rampaging Brighton who tore through Watford. It was a slightly more conservative, keep-it-tidy approach, which left Potter pleased but frustrated not to have six points on the board.
‘I’m disappointed we didn’t take three points,’ said Potter. ‘We built up our play better than last week and created the better chances. We took on board what we spoke about after the Watford game and we improved.’
They improved without dominating possession in the opening stages, although they did have more of the ball come the end.
Brighton allowed West Ham the chance to move the ball from side to side without allowing them through the centre as Hernandez, in for the injured Sebastian Haller, would find out early.
Dan Burn and Lewis Dunk had stellar campaigns last year and they only look to be improving. Together with Shane Duffy, they form a three-man central defence that acts as a wall in front of Mat Ryan. They are robust, too. Hernandez went to control a loose ball but Burn quickly took it away from him.
Not that it takes a genius to work out that a player they call ‘little pea’ would struggle against three defenders who are all over 6ft 4in. Only when Michail Antonio was brought on for the unfit and ineffective Jack Wilshere at half time would Hernandez find joy. The English forward was able to take the Brighton defence’s attention off the Mexican.
Before that happened, the Hammers had to rely on Manuel Lanzini and Pablo Fornals — a £24million summer signing from Villarreal — for creativity.
After all, Wilshere and Declan
Rice weren’t helping. Rice’s shot that blazed over Brighton goalkeeper Ryan summed up his afternoon on the south coast.
Brighton had waited for their moment to strike and thought they had executed a move to perfection in the 28th minute. Burn sent the ball over to Trossard after West Ham failed to clear and the 24-year-old Belgian winger lashed a volley into the bottom-right corner.
Not one West Ham player appealed and there was no fuss in the away end.
A minute later, with both teams having lined up for the restart over a minute after the goal, referee Anthony Taylor blew his whistle and disallowed it.
The message from Stockley Park indicated Burn was offside when the ball was initially played into the West Ham box.
It was the right call but because it came so late, it felt so wrong. ‘In an ideal world you’d want the decision to be made quicker,’ said Potter. ‘But I’m not going to be too critical.’
Then came manager Manuel Pellegrini’s half-time substitution and it would prove a masterstroke. Antonio was sent on for Wilshere, with Robert Snodgrass dropping back into central midfield.
With Hernandez now able to run on to the ball rather than control it with his back to goal, he wouldn’t need long to strike. Lanzini played a pass, then Hernandez took a touch to steady himself and struck past Brighton goalkeeper Mat Ryan.
Finally, West Ham’s was season underway. Or so they thought. Four minutes later Trossard had the ball in the back of the net again and this time it counted. He caught Issa Diop dawdling on the edge of his box, nicked the ball from him and sent a shot into Fabianski’s bottom-right corner.
There were no real complaints from Pellegrini, who said: ‘I think the draw was the right result for this game. In the second half both teams created more options and created chances.’