{"id":218845,"date":"2025-12-30T22:57:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-30T22:57:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/218845\/"},"modified":"2025-12-30T22:57:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-30T22:57:07","slug":"veltman-earns-brighton-draw-at-west-ham-after-welbeck-spot-kick-drama-premier-league","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/218845\/","title":{"rendered":"Veltman earns Brighton draw at West Ham after Welbeck spot-kick drama | Premier League"},"content":{"rendered":"

So December \u2013 the busiest month on the Premier League<\/a> calendar \u2013 comes and goes without a single win for West Ham or Brighton; 12 matches played between them, but only occasional draws to show for their endeavours.<\/p>\n

At least this meeting of the winless was not short on entertainment, with two goals apiece in just the Premier League\u2019s second ever game to see three first-half penalties awarded. But the draw \u2013 matching the one they shared at the Amex Stadium earlier this month<\/a> \u2013 helps neither team.<\/p>\n

For a Brighton side who sat two points off third place heading into December, the bottom half of the table is growing ever more familiar. How Nuno Esp\u00edrito Santo must be envious of such mid-table mediocrity after eight games without a win for his West Ham team. Nottingham Forest\u2019s defeat against Everton at least means the gap to safety has edged marginally smaller to four points.<\/p>\n

Nuno has already labelled the upcoming transfer window as \u201cvery important\u201d, explaining that \u201cthere are positions where we need to have more options\u201d. Nowhere has that been more acute this season than up front.<\/p>\n

Having achieved no more than moderate success deploying Jarrod Bowen and Crysencio Summerville as central strikers in recent games \u2013 and with Niclas F\u00fcllkrug on his way to Milan on loan \u2013 Callum Wilson was handed his first start in five games. If Nuno has his way, he might soon also have the services of J\u00f8rgen Strand Larsen to call upon, with West Ham preparing their opening offer for the Wolves striker. Whether that extends to his \u00a340m asking price remains to be seen.<\/p>\n

There was then a certain irony in Bowen hastily producing the perfect impression of a frontman, slotting calmly past Bart Verbruggen to put the hosts ahead after just 10 minutes when played straight through the middle by Lucas Paquet\u00e1. There can be little argument that West Ham \u2013 as a team \u2013 are not too good to go down this season, but their captain certainly is.<\/p>\n

Slow starts on their travels have dogged Brighton all campaign, and Bowen\u2019s goal was the eighth time in nine away matches they have fallen behind before 25 minutes.<\/p>\n

But two opportunities to hit back then arrived in quick succession, with Danny Welbeck gifted a couple of penalties within five minutes of each other. The first, awarded for a poor Maximilian Kilman slide tackle on Yankuba Minteh, was dispatched into the bottom corner. Perhaps overeager to change his approach after Paquet\u00e1 had rugby tackled Lewis Dunk for the second, Welbeck followed up with a Panenka that hit the crossbar.<\/p>\n

Jarrod Bowen slots home West Ham\u2019s opener in the 10th minute. Photograph: John Sibley\/Action Images\/Reuters<\/p>\n

The flurry of spot-kicks were not yet finished. As the clock ticked into first-half injury time, the referee, Michael Salisbury, was called to the pitchside monitor to view Dunk halt Wilson\u2019s goalbound shot with what was judged to be the upper part of his outstretched arm.<\/p>\n

Following a ridiculous, stop-start run-up, Paquet\u00e1 stroked into the bottom corner to restore West Ham\u2019s lead on the verge of half-time.<\/p>\n

No sooner had the second half begun than the goalmouth action in an increasingly bonkers game promptly resumed. The video assistant referee ruled against awarding a fourth penalty of the match when the Brighton substitute Kaoru Mitoma was felled inside the West Ham box. But the visitors restored parity from the resulting corner when Alphonse Areola slapped the ball straight to Jo\u00ebl Veltman, who controlled and volleyed home from close range.<\/p>\n

Nuno\u2019s decision to take Wilson off just after the hour was greeted with boos around the London Stadium, as Paquet\u00e1 was instructed to play as a centre-forward.<\/p>\n

The concluding action was primarily played down the other end though, where Areola produced excellent saves to keep out dangerous efforts from Mitoma and Georginio Rutter, and Konstantinos Mavropanos headed away under his own crossbar.<\/p>\n

By the final whistle, Jan Paul van Hecke was the only starting Brighton outfielder not to have attempted a shot. But the visitors could not find a winner.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"So December \u2013 the busiest month on the Premier League calendar \u2013 comes and goes without a single…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":218846,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-218845","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218845"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218845\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/218846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}