Hammers’ winless run stretches to eight after penalty-packed draw with Brighton

West Ham’s relegation concerns deepened as they were held to a dramatic draw by Brighton, surrendering the lead twice to extend their Premier League winless run to eight matches, Sport360NG reports.

An incident-filled first half saw three penalties awarded, only the second time that has happened in a Premier League game, with Danny Welbeck scoring and missing from the spot for Brighton before Lucas Paqueta kept West Ham level with a late conversion.

Brighton began brightly but were punished when West Ham took the lead with their first meaningful attack. Lucas Paqueta threaded a pass through for Jarrod Bowen, who calmly finished in the 10th minute.

Welbeck brought the visitors level 20 minutes later, dispatching a penalty after Yankuba Minteh was fouled by Max Kilman. The striker then had the chance to put Brighton ahead almost immediately, but struck the crossbar from another spot-kick after Paqueta was penalised for hauling down Lewis Dunk in the area.

West Ham were handed a penalty of their own just before the interval following a VAR review, with Dunk adjudged to have blocked Callum Wilson’s goalbound effort with his arm. Paqueta made no mistake in stoppage time, becoming only the second player in Premier League history to both concede and score a penalty in the same first half.

Brighton pushed for another spot-kick early in the second period when substitute Kaoru Mitoma went to ground, but instead found their equaliser from the resulting corner. Alphonse Areola could only parry the ball into the path of Joel Veltman, who bundled home.

Both sides had chances to snatch a winner. Bart Verbruggen denied Bowen from close range, while Areola produced saves to repel efforts from Mitoma and Georginio Rutter as the points were ultimately shared.