West Ham 0-0 Brighton: Weakened Hammers begin 2024 with bore home draw | OneFootball

Jarrod Bowen found chances few and far between on a frustrating night for West Ham against Brighton

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The Hammers went into Tuesday's opening game of the New Year looking to carry over their superb top-flight form from the end of 2023, when they won six of their last eight games - including against Arsenal, Manchester United and Tottenham - to move up to sixth in the table and only seven points adrift of the top four.

However, a weakened team missing the injured Kurt Zouma and Lucas Paqueta plus Africa Cup of Nations absentees Nayef Aguerd and Mohammed Kudus and the ill Vladimir Coufal were unable to keep that winning run going back on home soil at the London Stadium, with David Moyes' side eventually hanging on for a tame stalemate in front of a subdued crowd.

The first half largely flattered to deceive, with a slow start giving way to an exciting 10-minute spell from West Ham in which Brighton goalkeeper Jason Steele turned a low Jarrod Bowen shot onto the post before the offside flag was raised.

Steele also kept out a well-struck James Ward-Prowse volley, while Konstantinos Mavropanos headed high and wide before being unable to turn home an Emerson cushioned ball from a Ward-Prowse free-kick on the stroke of half-time.

The best chance of the opening period actually fell to Brighton, missing nine players of their own through injury and suspension, when James Milner's enticing cross was headed straight at man of the match Alphonse Areola - who had earlier saved a close-range strike from teenager Jack Hinshelwood - by Pascal Gross.

The evergreen Milner equalled Manchester United legend Ryan Giggs with his 632nd Premier League appearance on Tuesday, with Gareth Barry's all-time record of 652 now in sight for the soon-to-be 38-year-old, who also matched Giggs by lining up in a Premier League match for the 23rd consecutive year.

The second half was barely an improvement, with the impressive Areola again saving sharply from Danny Welbeck's snapshot before also denying Joao Pedro. Tomas Soucek put arguably West Ham's strongest opportunity of the night wide of the back post after Said Benrahma's cross was inadvertently deflected into his path by Billy Gilmour.

Brighton were the only team searching for a winner late on as tired West Ham attempted to shut up shop, with substitutes Adam Lallana and Evan Ferguson adding a spark off the bench.

However, West Ham eventually held out for a first home league goalless draw since 2018 and a club-record fourth consecutive clean sheet that continues their unbeaten run and keeps them sixth and three points ahead of Brighton, who climbed above Manchester United into seventh in the table with what was their very first league clean sheet of the season.

The Hammers host Championship play-off chasers Bristol City next in the third round of the FA Cup on Sunday, followed by a winter break and their next league fixture not until the trip to struggling Sheffield United on January 21.