Roberto De Zerbi makes telling West Ham claim after Brighton draw as he agrees with David Moyes about Hammers star

The Hammers pulled off a counter-attacking masterclass in their 3-1 victory at the Amex in August and on Tuesday night they held on for a 0-0 draw at London Stadium despite having 32% possession and six shots to Albion's 22.

While the Seagulls, who were without 10 players due to injury and suspension, couldn't claim all three points and their final product wasn't quite there, head coach De Zerbi was full of praise for his players.

When asked what the Sussex side were missing against the Hammers, the Italian said: "Goal, to score a goal. But you are happy because we had a clean sheet. Clean sheet is your problem and not mine.

"Today (Tuesday) we deserved to win but we played an amazing game, one of the best in my time, because West Ham are very, very good on the counter and we played a smart game with a clear idea in our head. We didn't take any risk in our build-up, we didn't lose any ball to concede from a counter-attack and we created a lot of chances to score."

He added: "For sure we made some mistakes in the last pass, cross, assist, and final shot. Their keeper [Areola] played another great game. At the Amex, I think he played better than today (Tuesday). We deserved to win at the Amex as well but at the end I can't say nothing of my players because I am delighted with the performance, it was a great, great performance. We have a lot of problems with injured players but we have a great spirit and character and we have great qualities."

West Ham boss David Moyes, whose side had 22% possession and 12 shots to Albion's 25 earlier this season, certainly appeared to be the happier of the two managers after the match; saying he was "thrilled" to pick up a point and conceded Brighton were the better team.

The Scot, who did feel Tomas Soucek had the best chance of the encounter early in the second half, also lauded the performance of goalkeeper Areola, who made a number of important saves against the visitors.

He told Sky Sports: "He's [Areola] played really well for us and has made some big saves. He has a big presence in goal. There were bits of his distribution I'd like to be better and hopefully we can work on things to get that better but his overall performance was excellent. We need a good goalkeeper and I'm really pleased we have another clean sheet."