West Ham 3-3 Brighton & Hove Albion
West Ham and Brighton played out one of the games of the season as they drew 3-3 at the London Stadium.
Both sides came into the game in desperate need of the points and made two changes apiece. While deadline-day signing Jarrod Bowen was not considered for the Hammers, fellow new arrival Tomas Soucek got a start, while Michail Antonio was also included.
Brighton included Glenn Murray in attack and the striker looked good early on, creating space for Aaron Mooy, who somehow missed the target with a free header.
The Hammers also had chances, Soucek provided with the best opportunity as his bullet head was brilliantly saved by Mat Ryan and the game had a feeling that a goal was always going to come.
It delivered on 30 minutes when Issa Diop made the most of the woeful Brighton marking to toe-poke home, having ghosted past Pascal Gross and Martin Montoya, neither of whom showed too much willingness to follow him.
Brighton came back but wasted a host of half-chances and were punished on the stroke of half-time when, from a sharp counter-attack, Robert Snodgrass found space and fired towards goal. His effort was sneaking in the far post but the helpless Adam Webster got the last touch, diverting past the stranded Ryan.
West Ham looked safe at the break but calamity struck soon after when Lukasz Fabianski flapped at the ball and his clearance hit the back of the unlucky Angelo Ogbonna.
However, again fortune favoured them going forward on the hour when Snodgrass volleyed towards goal and this time Bernardo was the villain, dipping his head to deflect past Ryan.
Job done for the Hammers? Not entirely and arguably it was manager David Moyes who was at fault.
With a back four, West Ham looked comfortable but Moyes withdrew Antonio and Soucek and switched to a back three – and his side conceded again just moments later after another poor piece of defending.
Having opened the scoring, this time Diop was at fault, waiting simply too long for the ball to bounce and allowing Pascal Gross to prod past him and the out-of-position Fabianski after 75 minutes.
Four minutes later it was 3-3 and Murray was the man to level the scores. As he has done so many times, the Cumbrian drifted into space at the back post, controlled and fired home. The goal was far from clear-cut and with a suspicion of handball, VAR had to check and after an anxious wait for both sides gave the goal.
West Ham’s shape meant they could not attack and Brighton almost grabbed a winner through Solly March’s free-kick but a decisive goal could not be found by either side.
