This was supposed to be the afternoon when West Ham’s attack exploded into life. They had a new striker on the bench, Lucas Paquetá was back from injury and Graham Potter felt bold enough to deploy an adventurous 4-2-3-1 system. The stage was surely set for Paquetá, Jarrod Bowen and Mohammed Kudus to run riot in the first half and the narrative demanded a goalscoring cameo from Evan Ferguson following his arrival on loan from Brighton.
In the event there were some encouraging flashes from Ferguson after he came on after 45 minutes of dominance from Brentford. The 20-year-old roughed up his markers, almost created an equaliser for Kudus and tested Mark Flekken with a low drive from the edge of the area. Yet there was never any prospect of a sustained onslaught from West Ham and, although there have been positive moments since the departure of Julen Lopetegui last month, Potter must accept that a record of one win from his six first games in charge is not good enough.
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