Brighton (United Kingdom) (AFP) – Glenn Murray scored his 99th goal for Brighton as they won 1-0 at home to West Ham on Friday and so climbed above the Hammers in the Premier League table.
Victory saw the Seagulls soar into 12th place ahead of the bulk of this weekend’s fixtures, with West Ham dropping down to 15th as a run of four games without defeat — including last week’s stunning 3-1 win over Manchester United — came to an end.
Brighton had already threatened a goal when they went ahead in the 25th minute.
West Ham’s Andriy Yarmolenko lost possession to Beram Kayal near the half-way line.
From there the Brighton midfielder played a quick one-two with Solly March before running unchallenged down the left wing and crossing to Murray who, given plenty of time and space by the Hammers defence, beat goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski.
The Londoners found it difficult to retain possession but Manuel Pellegrini’s men did make more of an impact in the second half at the Amex Stadium but Anderson wasted a promising chance when he curled a 25-yard free-kick over the crossbar.
Murray nearly scored his 100th Brighton goal when he headed narrowly over the woodwork.
Brighton substitute Jurgen Locadia was unlucky when his finish, following a close-range rebound, was disallowed for a desperately tight offside call.
There was still time for Arnautovic to miss again before Brighton recorded just their second league win — and first clean sheet — of the season.
