Brighton 3-2 West Ham: Carlos Baleba and Karou Mitoma strike late to complete stunning Seagulls turnaround… as Hammers’ winless run continues

Carlos Baleba watched the ball curl into the top corner and then off he went, backflipping, jumping and screaming his way towards touchline to be mobbed by team-mates, coaches and fans alike.

Brighton were never going to be happy to settle for a point here on the south coast, not when Kaoru Mitoma headed a last-minute equaliser after Mohammed Kudus and Tomas Soucek thought they had secured a comeback for West Ham.

They pushed and they pushed and, eventually, they won it. Brajan Gruda found Baleba 30 yards out and West Ham goalkeeper Alphonse Areola could only stand and watch it fly past him and into the net.

What a ridiculous, frantic, breathless game of football. A match that Brighton had dominated in the first half and taken a deserved lead when Yasin Ayari had curled his own long-range effort into the top corner.

For West Ham, this is becoming a habit. They let a late lead slip in the 93rd minute against Southampton last weekend but this was even worse, leading until the 89th and losing it in the 92nd. It’s now seven Premier League games without a win for Graham Potter.

If Potter has gone to bed wondering what reception he might face on his return to Brighton, he would have been better losing sleep over the reaction he’d get from his own supporters over his decision to leave out striker Niclas Fullkrug.

Potter said in the build-up that he’d rather Fullkrug have aired his frustrations in private after the late Southampton equaliser instead of declaring straight down the Sky Sports cameras that West Ham had a ‘mentality problem’.

Potter insisted, however, that his players should be able to be honest and say what they think but it was Fullkrug who found himself left on the bench at the Amex Stadium. Maybe it was just a coincidence.

Well, the West Ham fans said what they thought, too, wasting no time in making their feelings about clear. ‘Our big f****** German, he says what he wants,’ they sang from behind the goal.

The feeling is that Fullkrug was just saying what Hammers fans have been thinking throughout this abysmal Premier League campaign that’s sees them above only the three promoted sides.

And they were vindicated just 13 minutes in when Ayari picked up the ball on the edge of the area and curled it straight into the top corner.

Simon Adingra thought he’d doubled the Brighton just after the half-hour too when he turned the ball after a smart double save from Alphonse Areola only for Mats Wieffer to be in an offside position when the initial shot from Pervis Estupinian came rifling through the crowded West Ham area.

‘The German’s right, we’re f****** sh**e,’ came the new chants from the West Ham travelling support. ‘Get the German on the pitch,’ they called.

Potter obliged at half-time, having heard his players once again booed off the pitch, bringing Fullkrug on for James Ward-Prowse and, would you believe it, West Ham equalised two minutes later – though the German wasn’t involved this time.

Aaron Wan-Bissaka has been one of the few bright sparks for West Ham this season and it was through him at right wing-back where the visitors looked most dangerous, crossing for Soucek to find to the side netting early on, before playing a crucial part in the equaliser at the start of the second half.

Wan-Bissaka drove down the right before finding captain Jarrod Bowen making an underlapping run into the channel, who pulled the ball back for Mohammed Kudus to tap in for his first league goal since December.

He almost gave a much-improved West Ham the lead before the hour, firing a shot straight at Verbruggen before putting another just over the bar.

Potter complained after Southampton that his West Ham players were incapable of controlling a game with attacking football and it was the same here. Brighton dominated the ball while West Ham looked best on the counter-attack as the looked to whip ball after ball into the box. It so nearly worked.

Soucek saw a header from a deep ball into the area tipped on to the bar by Bart Verbruggen before being on hand at the end to nod in Jarrod Bowen’s cross with seven minutes to go.

It was not to be. Mitoma nodded in Gruda’s header back across goal from close range before Baleba stole the show.