Poor defending and VAR cost West Ham two points against Brighton (3-3)

Wes Ham 3-3 Brighton

 

West Ham supporters will be wondering why the club did not buy any defenders in the transfer window after this abject surrender to Brighton, 

Two up at halftime, then three one, somehow West Ham threw this game away to the extent that in the end they were hanging on for a point.

Brighton had a couple of early headers just wide from Aaron Mooy and Glenn Murray before West Ham took the lead on the half hour.

A Robert Snodgrass free kick from the left saw Issa Diop slide in to force the ball home.

West Ham were then unlucky not to extend the lead when a full blooded goal bound effort from Mikhail Antonio was blocked by a Brighton defender.

The home side though doubled the lead just before half time, when Snodgrass picked up the loose ball and drove home. The deflection off Adam Webster ensuring Brighton keeper Mathew Ryan had no chance.

The problems started for West Ham in the second half, when first Lukasz Fabianski saw his punch bounce back off Ogbonna's head into the net.

The two goal advantage, though, was quickly restored when a Snodgrass shot from 25 yards deflected into the net.

The comedy of errors really began in the 74th minute, when a misunderstanding between Ogbonna and Diop saw Pascal Grob get between the latter and Fabianski to poke home.

Things got even worse five minutes later when West Ham failed to clear a cross, enabling Glenn Murray to control and fire home. VAR ruled that Murray had not handled the ball as referee Michael Oliver had first ruled.

In the 90th minute Fabianki tipped over a Solly March free kick.

A surprisingly up beat David Moyes felt the West Ham performance was in the main very good. "We made a couple of silly mistakes, which gave them a leg up,"said Moyes, who felt his side were suffering fatigue from Wednesday night's game against Liverpool."We are all gutted because we gave away two points."

Brighton manager Graham Potter was pleased with "the quality and character" his team showed.

Potter was pleased with the way his players responded to being down, claiming in the end "we could have won the game."