West Ham United 0 Brighton & Hove Albion 2
Albion beat West Ham for the umpteenth time it seems as goals from Alexis Mac Allister and Leandro Trossard saw the Seagulls climb to fourth in the Premier League as it stands.
Danny Welbeck won Albion a penalty after being tripped by Thilo Kehrer. There was a quick VAR check to confirm it was inside the box before Mac Allister calmly dispatched his spot kick to put the Seagulls in front.
Albion had good chances to double their lead before the break. The best falling to Trossard from a Pascal Gross corner. Moises Caicedo also had a good effort fly just past the post.
Meanwhile, West Ham hardly troubled the Albion defence at all. Only very early on did Michal Antonio have an effort to trouble the Seagulls defence.
West Ham put Albion under pressure from the start of the second half. Jarrod Bowen and Declan Rice combining, with Rice seeing a shot sail wide.
As the Hammers continued to dominate, a Bowen corner fell to Aaron Cresswell who also saw a shot fly high and wide.
Albion were under intense pressure at times but were weathering the storm, as Antonio found Pablo Fornals, but Robert Sanchez was equal to his shot.
Albion’s defence look stretched at times but were still composed. Lewis Dunk and Adam Webster provided a formidable barrier in front of Sanchez.
Almost against the run of play, Albion doubled their lead. Excellent play again from Mac Allister in midfield found Gross, who played a sublime ball into the path of Trossard, who in turn produced a low shot to beat Lukasz Fabianski and put Albion 2-0 up with 23 minutes left to play.
Solly March had a good chance to make it three with a close-range header, the cross supplied by new signing Pervis Estupinan who came on for Adam Lallana.
Estupinan looked extremely comfortable as an attacking full back and looks yet another astute signing.
Late on Sanchez made two very good saves from Tomas Soucek and Jarrod Bowen headers, but the Albion never looked in danger of conceding after this.
An Albion team of some sorts will take on Forest Green Rovers in the Caraboa Cup on Wednesday (24 August) before in-form Leeds United visit the Amex in the Premier League next Saturday (27 August) in what will be a top of the table clash.
This result leaves West Ham bottom of the Premier League even worse than Manchester United, who climb to 19th place.
