West Ham vs Brighton: Marko Arnautovic goals inspire comeback in thrilling vindication of festive football

If the point of the festive fixture binge is to provide as much unpredictable football as possible, then this match was a thumping vindication of it. West Ham united and Brighton both looked exhausted here at the London Stadium, and after staggering their way through a dismal first half they then each scored two goals in two minutes to make the score 2-2. It was dramatic, in the sense that no-one expected either the Brighton surge or the West Ham fightback.

If these teams had been better rested, and this had not been their fourth game in 12 days, then it might not have been as exciting a contest. West Ham could have been better switched on at set pieces, and not conceded those two goals. Brighton in turn could have been better able to cope with the energy of Mark Noble and Michail Antonio off the bench, the two substitutes who made Mark Arnautovic’s double, and they could have held onto their lead.

Tiredness is a leveller, an element of chaos, and without it this game might well have stuck been stuck at the 0-0 deadlock for the whole 90 minutes.

But we have to ask, as these players prepare for their FA Cup third round games in three days’ time, whether the exhausting schedule is fair on the players, or whether it is ultimately detracting from the product itself. Because our national desire for festive football is so voracious that it creates games like this, two tired teams swinging empty punches at each other, hoping for a lucky connection.

Manuel Pellegrini did at least try to make this interesting. No January modesty or austerity for him. Instead, he sent out his team in a formation that was almost 4-2-4. Even more excitingly, he brought in Andy Carroll for his first West Ham start in exactly one year, setting up a rarely-spotted big man-big man combination with Marko Arnautovic up front.

And yet the actual football of the first half was terrible. Even with the nominal front four, West Ham never looked attacking or enterprising. Felipe Anderson and Robert Snodgrass looked exhausted by the Christmas programme. Arnautovic, just back from one month out injured, initially looked off the pace. But compared to Carroll, he was a supple encapsulation of fitness and vigour. Carroll did not look ready in either of his substitute appearances in either of his recent substitute appearances against Southampton or Burnley, his main contribution on both evenings being limited to fouling opposition players.

Here, even after those two run-outs, Carroll looked just as unready. His only contribution to the first half was to foul Davy Propper from behind 10 minutes in. When West Ham had the ball, he was never in a position to hurt Brighton. It made you wonder how bad Pellegrini must have thought his Plan B was, if this was what he decided to go with. Unsurprisingly the experiment was terminated at half-time. Carroll did not emerge for the second half. Lucas Perez did instead.

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There was nothing approaching optimism at half-time for the rest of the game. The players had looked tired, bored, and hoping to get home and rest before the FA Cup games this weekend. But football has a funny way of surprising you and they ended up producing a second half utterly unrecognisable from the first.

First it was Brighton with two similar goals in two minutes. Taking advantage of West Ham dozing off at set-plays, they bagged two from Pascal Gross corners from the left. First, Lukasz Fabianski was distracted by Jurgen Locadia, could not get much on his punch, allowing Dale Stephens to volley it into the bottom corner from the edge of the box. The next one was even worse defending. The corner went all the way to the far post, bouncing beyond Issa Diop, and there was Shane Duffy, falling backwards away from goal, twisting his body to volley it in.

West Ham were 2-0 down, out of nowhere, and given how they were playing they did not look like they had any chance of a fightback. But Pellegrini threw on Michail Antonio and Mark Noble, neither impressive in the defeat at Burnley three days before. And within five minutes West Ham were level, and each of the two substitutes had an assist.

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First Noble, better able to pick a pass than any of West Ham’s starting midfielders, clipped the ball forward to Arnautovic running in behind. He held off Duffy, controlled the ball, waited and then tucked it past Button. Suddenly the atmosphere changed and the second was hardly a surprise. Antonio charged down the right, away from Bernardo, and pulled the ball back into the box where again Arnautovic showed a patience and presence that looked beyond everyone in the first half.

There were no more goals and both teams had to settle for a point, arguably more than either of them deserved.