West Ham‘s traditional Christmas fixture came on December 27th this year as they welcomed Brighton & Hove Albion to the London Stadium in what turned out to be an eventful clash.
David Moyes made some eyebrow-raising changes to his team as Ben Johnson came in and was deployed in a left-wing back role and there was another start for Mark Noble in the centre of the midfield.
The Hammers were punished for a lacklustre first-half performance shortly before the interval when Neal Maupay capitalised on the hosts’ failure to clear their lines despite being handed numerous opportunities to do so.
However, with a double change from Moyes at half-time, the home side then had a far greater influence in the game and hit back through Johnson with his first goal for the club.
Brighton went ahead once again, this time Lewis Dunk pouncing on an attempted clearance to fire home. Tomas Soucek’s aerial threat later came to the fore to save the day as the lanky Czech midfielder headed home from close a range after a corner.
The match ended 2-2, with both sides perhaps feeling they did enough to shade all three points in periods.
Here’s how we rated the Irons on display…
