Life under Julen Lopetegui had been very mixed for West Ham up to today’s game, as they had struggled to get any consistency going early on this season.
Those inconsistencies were on show early on in their game against their London rivals, as Fábio Carvalho found Bryan Mbeumo in the Hammers box, with the Cameroonian quick to rifle home a left footed effort to give the hosts the lead within the first minute.
Brentford continued to push for a quick second, with West Ham only just managing to keep their opponents at bay, as they failed to build anything of note in the opposition's half in the opening half-hour.
Both Mohammed Kudus and Guido Rodríguez missed the target when they had the chance to shoot, but as the first half progressed, the visitors finally found some rhythm.
Kudus tried to test Mark Flekken with a volley in the box, but Sepp van den Berg managed to block the effort, and West Ham ultimately failed to put any shots on target before the end of the first half.
West Ham continued to build on their momentum from the first half’s latter minutes though, and it only took nine minutes after the restart for Tomáš Souček to pull them level, as the experienced midfielder fired a rebounded effort into an empty net following Michail Antonio’s initial shot.
The goal seemed to bring an air of caution that flooded the game, as neither side wanted to fully commit to the attack in case they were caught out at the other end.
In turn, neither the Bees nor the Hammers could find that crucial goal to take all three points, leaving both sides mired in mid-table with more questions than answers for both managers to ponder.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Bryan Mbeumo (Brentford)
