West Ham 0-0 Brighton: Seagulls claim their first clean sheet in the Premier League this season and move above Manchester United into seventh place… as a smattering of boos greet the Hammers at the final whistle
David Moyes has raised the bar at West Ham, hence the upcoming new contract, but with it higher expectations.
And a point at home to Brighton, forfeited or not, wasn't enough for some and a bit of boos greeted the final whistle.
They had witnessed a clear second place finish behind Brighton, missing the opportunity to make it a perfect Christmas period by widening the gap between them and the Seagulls and also taking them back into the top four.
And while the conditions in some parts of the London Stadium may not have bought much benefit of the doubt, there was some softening for Moyes.
West Ham were massively weakened, missing two of their best players in Mohammed Kudus and Lucas Paqueta, their two first-choice centre-backs in Nayef Aguerd and Kurt Zouma and favoring right-back Vladimir Coufal.
West Ham and Brighton played a goalless draw at the London Stadium on Tuesday evening
Despite failing to convert on several chances, Brighton claimed their first clean sheet of the season
Pascal Gross had three clear chances during the match, but was unable to get past Alphonse Areola
Kudus and Aguerd were missing due to AFCON duties with Ghana and Morocco respectively, with FIFA rules stating that players would be released for the tournament from January 1.
The absence of Kudus – admittedly an injury doubt for this player – and especially Paqueta had a significant impact on West Ham going forward.
Moyes reflected: 'Couldn't we have played on January 1 so that our African players could play? That is something that is not right.
'She [Kudus and Paqueta] They are fantastic footballers and we need them. The other players need them too.'
And despite the flat finish to the festive period, Moyes pointed to the gifts he had already delivered to his side at Christmas.
“We had a brilliant Christmas in terms of the points situation,” he said. 'I'm really happy that we won three and drew one, including Arsenal, Manchester United and Brighton, who are a great team. From a point of view, we did very well.”
A long-awaited clean sheet was something that could be salvaged from this subdued, low-quality affair – perhaps another reason for the full-time response – for Brighton, ending a club record 23 league appearances for De Zerbi's side.
But if that signals new year, new Brighton, their failures in front of goal were a familiar story for De Zerbi, who was left on his knees late on after yet another chance went begging.
He has complained about games his Brighton side have dominated but failed to win in recent times. At one point he claimed that a great team and a great manager would have turned such performances into victories. Add this to the list.
'Score a goal [was what we missed] but we kept a clean sheet,” he said.
“We deserved to win, but we made some mistakes in the last pass, the shot, the cross, the assist.”
However, he was pleased with the way his side nullified West Ham's threat on the counter-attack, which was reduced by their key absences.
In the return match at the Amex in August, Brighton dominated but were undone by a masterclass in counter-attacking from Moye's side.
This time Brighton avoided a repeat.
David Moyes' side extended their unbeaten streak to three games after beating Arsenal and Man United
Jarrod Bowen looked dangerous in the first half, testing Jason Steele in goal
Danny Welbeck also had the opportunity to give the visitors the lead during the match
Soucek (L), who signed a new contract with the club this week, had the best chance of the match, but pushed his shot wide of the net
In fact, the first half saw Jason Steele produce two impressive saves to deny Jarrod Bowen – who was ultimately offside – and James Ward-Prowse before his efforts were matched by Alphonse Areola who himself produced a double save to keep out Danny Welbeck efforts . and Jack Hinshelwood.
There were close calls towards the end of the half for both sides before Soucek missed West Ham's best chance of the game in the second, side-footing it wide from close range.
But that was just a brief respite amid a flurry of chances for Brighton.
Their calls for a penalty and Emerson handball were ignored but followed by Welbeck's effort being repelled by Areola.
Joao Pedro then failed to complete his hard work after dribbling and feinting past three West Ham defenders but shooting straight at Areola.
In came Evan Ferguson, who would be the next to close in on Brighton.
Firstly, after creating some space with some clever footwork before firing wide and secondly, with a clever back-heel effort that was blocked by the alert Angelo Ogbonna.
Pascal Gross and Jakob Moder were next to miss close-range chances before Adam Lallana also extended Areola, who did as much as anyone to give the resilient West Ham a point.
Moyes added: “This was the first night we looked run down and tired. I wanted to get better so we could play better, but maybe we just lacked quality.”