Leandro Trossard seals Brighton victory to send West Ham to bottom of table

David Moyes is attempting to deliver something unprecedented in West Ham’s history, a third consecutive top-seven league finish. Neither Ron Greenwood’s trio of 1966 World Cup winners nor John Lyall’s 1980s entertainers managed that.

The signs so far are unpromising, particularly after a defeat that continued a goalless start to the season. Brighton extended their unbeaten Premier League hex on West Ham to nine matches, running out deserved winners, with Leandro Trossard, scorer of the second and instrumental in the first, the outstanding player in a team that attacked and defended as a unit.

For West Ham, Thilo Kehrer, signed from Paris Saint-Germain and starting in central defence, had a problematic debut, rashly conceding the penalty from which Alexis Mac Allister scored the opening goal. Making one change from last week’s loss at Nottingham Forest, Moyes had left further new signings in Gianluca Scamacca, Flynn Downes and Maxwel Cornet on the bench. He is not a manager given to sweeping changes. Graham Potter, with whom Moyes shared a lengthy, cordial pre-match chat, had stuck to the same XI that beat Manchester United on opening day, and drew at Newcastle. The end-results were rather different.

One manager’s conservatism looks to be holding his team back, a group of players bearing the scars of two previous seasons where a small squad was stretched thinly. The other’s careful, progressive approach is bearing fruit in early season, further adding to his reputation.

Potter’s team may still lack the prolific striker who could help sustain a challenge for a European place but they had control from the early stages. Both Jarrod Bowen and Michail Antonio might have escaped down the flanks, making use of the space between