Righto, that’s us done. Thanks for your company and comments – enjoy the rest of the holiday.
Here’s Jacob Steinberg’s match report.
Of course, United lost the second of those ties to IFK Goteborg, whose own story is incredible - they won the Uefa in 81-82 under Sven-Goran Eriksson when they weren’t fully professional, and repeated the trick just a few years later. How sad that it’ll never happen again.
It really is incredible that Dundee United reached a European Cup semi and Uefa Cup final. We’ll never see anything remotely like that again – somehow, team from Italy are now the plucky outsiders.
And here’s a longread on the magic he wrought.
The great Wee Jim McLean died yesterday. Here’s our obituary.
If Brighton play like that in the remainder of their games, they should be fine. With them, it’s just about scoring when they’re playing well, though I daresay they’ll be offered money for Bissouma in the immediate future. I’m sure there’s an amount for which they’d sell him, but I doubt it’s large than how much relegation would cost.
Here’s Louise Taylor’s report from the early game.
Next, of course, is more football. Join Rob Smyth for Liverpool v Big Sam West Brom.
Moyes’ subs delivered today, Yarmolenko and Lanzini both involved in the equaliser. But, on the other hand, he got his team totally wrong, so.
Updated
Full-time: West Ham United 2-2 Brighton & Hove Albion
West Ham stay 10th while Brighton move 16th, above Burnley on goal difference.
90+5 min West Ham win a free-kick and send the tall lads forward, but Soucek can only flick Cresswell’s kick into Sanchez’s hands.
90+3 min Brighton, on the other hand, might’ve taken a draw pre-match, but aren’t in a position to be passing up wins when they’re finding them so hard to come by. It’s now over a month since they recorded their last one.
90+2 min West Ham have done well to get away with this. They were dreadful in the first half but got out of it just one down, then right when they looked to be taking control, went to sleep and almost cost themselves the match.
90 min There’ll be four added minutes.
90 min He must be fine, because Brighton send on Jahanbaksh for Maupay, who Gary Neville names his man of the match. No one’s really excelled so that’s fair enough, but I’d probably have gone for Bissouma.
88 min West Ham pump a ball into the box and when it’s cleared it lands on Yarmolenko’s laces; he absolutely annihilates a drive, which blows away Burn’s Christmas cobwebs. He goes down and has a little rest, but looks like he’ll be fine.
87 min And he’ll be steaming that he picked a team better equipped than usual to deal with West Ham’s set-pieces, only for his players to defend like he’d never mentioned it to them.
87 min I wonder if Potter regrets not making a change sooner. He might not’ve stopped the goal, but he might’ve given his side fresh impetus.
86 min West Ham push for the equaliser, the ball bobbling about in the box but not quite dropping to any of the giants in pursuit of it.
84 min My SkyGo crashes, returning to tell me March dribbled a shot just wide.
83 min Gross replaces Welbeck.
GOAL! West Ham United 2-2 Brighton & Hove Albion (Soucek 82)
And there it is! Cresswell slaps in a cross and with White failing to track him, Soucek comes from a long way back to arrive hard and fast so that when Dunk doesn’t clear properly, he smacks a header past Sanchez. I’m not sure he knew loads about it, but he knew that he was attacking the ball with every fibre of his soul, and when Brighton’s defenders did not, they got what they deserved.
Updated
82 min West Ham win a corner down the right which Cresswell hurtles over to take. their set-pieces have been very poor today, but I bet this one doesn’t go short....
81 min Choking up, here.
🏆By winning his tenth Globe Soccer Award, Mendes can “add a star to his jersey”. Today Jorge Mendes is crowned AGENT OF THE CENTURY 2001-2020 #JorgeMendes #abudhabimedia #globesoccer @polarissports @AbuDhabiMedia @dubaisc pic.twitter.com/sej9lySkyp
— Globe Soccer Awards (@Globe_Soccer) December 27, 2020
80 min West Ham win a free-kick on the left which Cresswell will tease in. But Bissouma heads clear and the follow-up cross, from Coufal I think, is easily collected by Sanchez.
77 min Cresswell races out of defence and eventually the ball finds its way to Rice, who charges towards the box like a rugby league player before teeing up Yarmolenko for a cross. But rather than introduce ball to box as soon as possible, he opts to adjust body position in order to use his left foot, curling a deflected effort that floats into the arms of Sanchez.
76 min Maupay shuttles back and forth as West Ham look to play their way out of defence and his work allows Bissouma and Alzate to force the home side back. Brighton are back in the ascendancy.
75 min Surely Moyes will send on another attacker as soon as he can? West Ham were on top before Brighton scored, but they were hardly peppering the goal.
73 min Things were looking ominous for Brighton, but a good minute of play put the pressure back on West Ham and though they needed the run of the ball, they made it count with some quick thinking that was probably the result of some training-ground innovation.
The goal stands!
It may well have done, but the footage is inconclusive so West Ham must do it all over again. A win here would be colossal for Brighton.
Updated
VAR check
Did the ball hit Dunk in the arm?
GOAL! West Ham United 1-2 Brighton & Hove Albion (Dunk 69)
Excellent from Brighton, poor from West Ham. Trossard knocks it shot but along the by-line to March, who whips out a cross, and when Soucek tries to clear via diving header, the ball goes directly into the leaping Dunk, who reacts quickest to lash into the roof of the net. West Ham were caught by the speed of that.
Updated
69 min This last minute has been much better from Brighton and Trossard wins a corner down the left, which goes short...
68 min Nice from Trossard nudging a ball into space for Maupay, dashing to the line, and his dug-out cross is decent but there’s no one in the middle to attack it.
67 min I wonder if Graham Potter is thinking about changing things. A point isn’t dreadful for Brighotn but a win takes them two points clear of Burnley. I’d expect to see Gross or Mac Allister pretty soon.
65 min West Ham are stretching the play well now, Yarmolenko keeping the width on the right with Johnson and Cresswell doing likewise on the left.
64 min West Ham have the impetus now and will fancy themselves to go on and win this, just as Brighton will fancy themselves to go on and lose this.
62 min Watching that celebration again, a young man realising a dream, is such a joy. Sport is so good.
GOAL! West Ham United 1-1 Brighton & Hove Albion (Johnson 60)
He’s been at the club six he was six and now look! What an absolute moment! Yarmolenko goes down the right and his cross causes trouble because this half, Soucek is straining to get in there. In the ensuing chaos, the ball breaks to Lanzini who, from the groundm crab-footballs the ball back to Johnson, who opens his body to sidefoot high into the far side-netting! Lovely finish.
Updated
60 min Goodness me.
Christian Gross has been appointed head coach of FC Schalke 04.
— FC Schalke 04 (@s04_en) December 27, 2020
Welcome to Schalke, Christian! 👋#S04 pic.twitter.com/CHhZVRGLFi
58 min But here they come now, Bissouma bursting past a challenge to find March out on the left; his cross is easily claimed by Fabianski.
57 min Brighton look pretty happy with what they’ve got, winning the ball high up the pitch and slowly funnelling it back to Sanchez. That makes sense, because it doesn’t look like West Ham have the guile to break them down, so protecting 1-0 is more important than seeking 2-0.
56 min West Ham are at least getting men forward now, though still struggling to locate quality or space. What they need is Mark Noble playing number 10.
Updated
54 min Better from West Ham, Lanzini moving the ball quickly to find Soucek, but when he looks to stick it into the box, he can only find Webster.
53 min Alzate stretches forward from midfield and down the right, but when he looks to cross he finds Coufal in the road so has to make do with a throw.
51 min “West Ham sure did pay a lot for Benrahma not to play him at all,” says Joseph Harvey. “Brentford sorely need him too. What a strange deal.”
I saw Brentford in midweek and they did well without him, but I see your point. On the one hand, he’s really not a Moyes player, but on the other managers like Moyes sometimes find themselves one x-factor player and allow him to get on with it, like Alan Ball and Matt Le Tissier.
50 min West Ham are starting to play inside the Brighton half.
48 min “My favorite type of defensive mistake,” emails Kári Tulinius, “is when a defender bodychecks another out of the way of the attacker. Ogbonna’s block on Rice, allowing Maupay space to turn and shoot, is a classic of the genre. The finest example I can remember off the top of my head is when two Bosnians tackled each other while trying, unsuccessfully, to keep Messi from scoring.
Enjoy the second half!”
This is my favourite many things, and absolutely my favourite this.
47 min Better already from West Ham, Rice swinging in a cross that Haller can only head straight at Sanchez.
46 min So I guess West Ham are sticking to the 5-3-2 for now, with Yarmolenko replacing Bowen up front and Lanzini a more natural number 10 than Noble.
46 min Off we go again....
Brighton make one half-time change: Alzate replaces the presumably injured Lallana.
West Ham make two half-time changes: Lanzini and Yarmolenko replace Noble and Bowen. I’m a little surprised not to see Benrahma, and I guess Bowen is just knackered.
Half-time email: “The Moysiah has got this wrong though, hasn’t he?” asks Graeme Arthur. “Johnson and Nobes are spare parts that need replacing with shiny new Benrahma and classic luxury model Lanzini.”
Can’t argue with any of that. I thought the team he picked would grind Brighton down by taking away what they do best, but the lack of intensity scuppered that.
Half-time: West Ham United 0-1 Brighton & Hove Albion
That was absolutely horrendous from West Ham, who were slow, negative and generally useless. Brighton have been ok, looking to go forward and move the ball quickly, but struggling to get very far because it’s hard to break down seven men defending.
GOAL! West Ham United 0-1 Brighton & Hove Albion (Maupay 44)
Burn lanks forward to find March and carries on around his outside to accept the return. He crosses low and Maupay tries to set it off for Trossard, but his touch-back hits Rice who hits Ogbonna, so the chance looks to have gone ... except the ball bounces back to him and this time he spins to drive into the net from 10 yards. That goal is a lot of what Brighton deserve and everything that West Ham deserve – they’ve been execrable and then some.
Updated
44 min Maybe it being 0-0 tells us how well-drilled West Ham are, because they’ve been so poor yet, as I keep repeating, not come close to conceding...
42 min The possession stats are 32-68 in Brighton’s favour. But they’re still struggling to create anything ... except here comes March, weaving inside across Coufal to open a shooting lane, only to drag his effort straight at Fabianski.
40 min So what will Moyes do? I’d expect to see Fornals or Benrahma for Noble, and to see Soucek and Rice running far harder than they are now.
38 min Nice from Brighton, Trossard pulling right and deep to swing a cross towards the far post, but Coufal does really well to get himself between Welbeck and ball, which passes over the by-line for a goalkick.
37 min West Ham don’t change the team that often, so perhaps it’s no surprise to see them flagging from the off. But they’ve got plenty of options on the bench, and if I didn’t know Moyes’ reputation for dithering as well as I do, I’d have expected him to have changed things already.
36 min This is a general as well as specific problem too – Brighton need to get more men and more balls into the box.
34 min But how about now! Bissouma lofts a terrific ball over the top for March, burrowing infield from wide on the left, and with no one busting their arse to get into the box, he has no option but to shoot, slicing wide. He the shares how hurt this loneliness made him feel with his friends.
33 min Gary Nev says that Brighton couldn’t be doing much more in the game, they just need to score, but that sounds extremely generous to me. They’ve not really created much, they’ve just had more of the ball.
32 min Brighton move the ball side to side, probing for a gap. Eventually, though, Webster loses patience and lamps a shot that catches Welbeck’s midriff and flies wide.
30 min And he’s on the touchline gesticulating as we speak. Brighton really need to score before he gets it right, because West Ham can’t play much worse than this and it’s still 0-0.
30 min I daresay David Moyes is going to dispense some sentiments when he gets his players back into the dressing room at half-time.
Updated
29 min The corner comes to nowt.
28 min Brighton are turning it to but need to capitalise and here they come again, Welbeck moving the ball onto Trossard, who finds Burn ... and from 25 yards he tries a dig, which flicks off Balbuena and behind.
27 min The corner is decent too, picking out Webster in the middle, but he can’t get any power into his header which plops into Fabianski’s arms.
26 min West Ham need to change something here, because Brighton’s midfield are dominating. Welbeck is running in behind, usually from centre to right and off Ogbonna – there he goes again, winning a corner – while Trossard is helping Bissouma and Lallana in midfield.
25 min This is another soupcon better, Rice turning up on the right of the box and banging a cross with which Bowen can do nothing.
24 min And here’s Rice now, breaking forward and finding Coufal down the right. Nothing comes of it, but it’s a start.
22 min Brighton are still dominating possession, though West Ham look to be letting them. We’ve barely seen Rice and Soucek so far, when usually they’d be putting themselves about in the grand style.
20 min “Once or twice a season,” says Ian Sargeant, “West Ham have a whole game where beating the first man on any cross appears as far out of our reach as walking on the moon. This might be the first one this term.”
The odd thing is they’re not even trying. I’m going to sound very yer da when I say this, but a corner hit flat and hard towards the near post is an absolute bastard to defend and delivering such should not be beyond a Premier League player tasked with taking set-pieces.
19 min Welbeck’s playing with decent energy and hares after Ogbonna, who’s looking to ease back to Fabianski. Instead, he has to turn and hammer towards nowhere, but Brighton can’t win the second ball.
17 min Slowly slowly, West Ham are inching into game, but as I type that, March curves an absolutely gorgeous cross into the middle that looks perfect for Welbeck, but in front of him, Ogbonna waves a leg in his eyeline and he can’t react quickly enough once the ball’s passed it.
16 min West Ham are a team of behemoth and Brighton are not. Why not stick corners into the mixah and go from there?
14 min Dunk shanks the ball behind to cede another unnecessary corner and have a look! West Ham go short again, and when it’s inevitably cleared, Cresswell sticks back in and Bowen finds himself up against Welbeck, so takes a touch and hooks a difficult shot over the top.
11 min In co-comms, Gary Neville thinks Brighton might be also be playing five at the back.
10 min No, Bowen hits the first man, Bissouma, and again is lucky to win another corner, which he duly clumps straight to Bissouma. This time, Brighton get the ball away.
9 min Better from West Ham, Bowen finding Soucek who spreads to Coufal. He looks to knock the ball back into the middle, so Lallana panics and slices behind; bad move against a side as set-piece proficient as West Ham. But for reasons known to no one, they take it short and do well to parlay that into another. I’m not sure they’ll try that one again.
Updated
8 min Maupay wellies the ball out of play, which is a metaphor of some sort.
6 min My guess is that West Ham plan to outlast Brighton and win this game in the second half, because the more I look at their formation and team, the less necessary all those defensive players seem.
Updated
5 min West Ham half-clear the corner and Brighton look to build again, but can’t make anything happen. So far, the game is being played in the Brighton half.
Updated
4 min Nice from Brighton, Maupay playing into Welbeck who, on the half-turn, shovels the ball back into his path - they could work very nicely together - and Maupay’s shot is deflected behind.
Updated
2 min Burn’s punt over the top sticks Welbeck running in behind, but with no support he can only shoot, panelling not too far over the top.
2 min It looks like Noble is playing off the front, which all seems a bit unnecessary. That isn’t his position, so why not play a better player there then trust Rice and Soucek to do what they do?
1 min I’m a little surprised Brighton haven’t gone with an extra midfielder. Lallana is a nice player and Bissouma looks capable of becoming a superb one, but the physical and numerical battle against West Ham is a lot.
1 min Away we go!
The players take a knee. Peace and justice people – all black lives matter.
Here come the teams!
I can’t wait for us to beat corona, so we can get back to wholesomeness of that ilk.
It’s a while since Mark Noble started two games in a row, which is absolutely baffling when you consider how photogenic he is. Come on Davey, help us out.
Graham Potter tells us that Connolly felt his groin yesterday [...], so he takes a rest, while Burn is there to add height against the aforementioned shtarkers. Moyes won’t confirm the reversion to a back five, but wants his players to play as they’ve been doing and to finish better.
Updated
So where is this game? For Brighton, it’s about trying to pick holes in the blanket of shtarkers West Ham string across the middle of the pitch; I daresay they’ll try and keep their three attackers fairly central, looking to cause trouble with weight of numbers.
West Ham, meanwhile, will be looking down the inside and outside of Brighton’s wing-backs, and seeking to take advantage of their numerical advantage in midfield. The more I look at this, the harder the match-up looks for the visitors.
Leeds v Burnley is done, with the win vaulting Leeds up the table from 16th to 11th.
I’m really looking forward to watching Ben White today, who looks a real talent. It won’t happen because Gareth Southgate is manager, but given England have no serous centre-backs, there ought to be a place or two available in the starting XI for the Euros, never mind the squad.
Elsewhere, Patrick Bamford’s fifth-minute penalty put Leeds in front against Burnley, and with five minutes to go, that remains the case. Rob Smyth has the latest....
As for Brighton, Graham Potter makes two changes: Dan Burn replaces Joel Veltman at wing-back and Danny Welbeck is in for Aaron Connolly at centre-forward, the star on top of their Christmas tree. He’s looking in decent nick, and with Maupay and Trossard behind him, and plenty of scope for the touch and combination play that makes him so much fun to watch when he’s on it.
So West Ham make just the one change from Monday night’s defeat at Chelsea, Pablo Fornals dropping out and Ben Johnson – a nephew of Paul Parker and cousin of Ledley King – coming in for his first league start of the season. That tells us Michail Antonio is still injured and means a change back from four defenders to five, though I’m a little surprised that we’re not seeing an extra attacker as a consequence – or maybe I just think we all deserve 90 minutes of Saïd Benrahma. OK, I do, and I can see why Moyes will reckon that if he keeps things solid, his players will find enough edge to win, but also, give us 90 minutes of Saïd Benrahma please.
Updated
Teams!
West Ham United (a curiously positive 5-3-2): Fabianski; Coufal, Balbuena, Ogbonna, Cresswell, Johnson; Noble, Rice, Soucek; Bowen, Haller. Subs: Randolph, Fredericks, Dawson, Diop, Snodgrass, Lanzini, Yarmolenko, Fornals, Benrahma.
Brighton & Hove Albion (a festive 3-4-2-1): Sanchez; White, Webster, Dunk; Burn, Bissouma, Lallana, March; Trossard, Maupay; Welbeck. Subs: Steele, Mac Allister, Gross, Jahanbaksh, Alzate, Propper, Zeqiri, Bernardo, Veltman.
Referee: Simon Hooper (Swindon lot)
Updated
Preamble
Just when we think there’s nothing more 2020 can do to surprise us, it allows to write the words “West Ham v Brighton” with the prefix “highly anticipated”. Not by everyone, granted, but by anyone who’s spent any serious time watching these enterprising and idiosyncratic outfits.
West Ham are the very model of a modern David Moyes team – disciplined and dogged but also full of creativity and conviction, full of physical monsters with artistic sensibilities. They’ve had a fine season so far, and though a win today won’t move them up beyond the 10th spot they already occupy, they’ll fancy themselves to reel in at least a couple of the clubs who currently sit above them. Things are working well.
Brighton, meanwhile, are in a more parlous position, clear of the relegation zone by just a point with today’s game in hand. Given the state of Sheffield United and West Brom, the likelihood is that there’s only one relegation slot up for grabs, which is the good news; the bad news it that it’s only them, Fulham and Burnley contesting it, and there’s no good reason to believe the latter won’t escape it pretty easily.
The thing is, Brighton have some lovely footballers – Yves Bissouma, Neal Maupay, Leandro Trossard and Daniel Welbeck among them – which is why that, of the teams in the bottom seven, only Leeds have scored more goals. And Brighton’s defensive record isn’t dreadful either – of the teams in the bottom nine, only Arsenal and Burnley have conceded fewer. Their problem has been not scoring at the right times and conceding at the wrong times, a malady encapsulated by last weekend’s behaviour: given 50 minutes to score against a team with only one point to its name, they then conceded the first goal and had to rely on an 87th-minute scramble to snaffle a point.
With their direct competitors both in decent nick, they can’t keep tossing points, but there are few less pleasant teams to play against than West Ham. They’ll have to go some to get out of this one better off than when they started.
Kick-off: 2.15pm GMT
