West Ham United manager Graham Potter said that he understands fans booing the team in response to their current poor form.

The Hammers travel to Brighton & Hove Albion on Saturday, having surrendered a lead at home to already-relegated Southampton to draw 1-1 last weekend.

The draw represented their sixth league game without a win and kept them fourth-bottom in the Premier League.

"Sure [I understand that]. The performance wasn't good enough and the result isn't what we want. So I completely understand that," Potter said in response to the fans booing.

"Our performance wasn't good enough, first half especially. Nowhere near what we wanted to do. Credit to Southampton but we need to do better with the balance between attack and defence.

"In the modern Premier League, you have to do both sides of the game, we're struggling to do that, to sustain attacks, keep the ball well to create chances. We struggled.

"The we looked was in transition, which is where the goal came from, but overall we're disappointed."

West Ham had initially gone a goal up in the 47th minute through Jarrod Bowen, though Leslie Ugochukwu earned Saints just their 11th point of the season in stoppage time.

"You have to score the second goal, do the right things, attack well, not give the ball away, and unfortunately we didn't do that well enough," said Potter.

"There are probably not too many players who can say 'I had a really good game today'. We need to look at that collective to find out the reasons. It's not a lack of effort.

"But we're suffering a bit at home, we're suffering here. We need to do better."

Brighton head coach Fabian Hurzeler, meanwhile, was sympathetic to his own fan criticism ahead of this weekend's game.

The Seagulls were beaten 4-2 away to Brentford last time out, leaving them 10th in the Premier League.

"Yeah, in the end we have to make the decisions that bring us success," Hurzeler told Premier League Productions.

"I tried to put some fast players like Kaoru Mitoma and Solly March, more midfielders on the pitch to control the game.

"In the end we didn't get the credit for the courage we showed. In the end it doesn't help when you lose a man but he said sorry to the team and he will learn from this."

PLAYERS TO WATCH

Brighton & Hove Albion – Danny Welbeck

Welbeck is looking to score 10 goals in a Premier League season for the first time (currently nine). As it stands, he is the highest scorer in the competition never to reach double figures in a single campaign (76 goals).

He's scored more goals against West Ham than any other opponent in the top flight (six), so will be hopeful of reaching his target this time around. 

West Ham – Niclas Fullkrug

Fullkrug has either scored (one) or assisted (two) a goal in each of his last three Premier League starts for West Ham.

Overall, he is averaging a goal or assist every 108 minutes this term, the second-best rate for a West Ham player in a single campaign (min. 500 minutes) after Paolo Di Canio in 1999-00 (one every 90 minutes).

MATCH PREDICTION: BRIGHTON WIN

Brighton have only lost one of their 15 Premier League meetings with West Ham (W6 D8), though it was a 3-1 defeat in this exact fixture last season.

The Seagulls have also won three and drawn one of their last five league games at the Amex Stadium, while they are unbeaten in three home games against teams currently in the bottom four.

But Hurzeler's team have lost three of their last four Premier League games (D1), more than their previous 13 beforehand (W6 D5 L2). They have shipped two or more goals in each of their last five league games, their longest run since March 2022 (six in a row).

West Ham are also struggling for form. They are winless in their last six top flight games (D3 L3), last going longer without a victory in the competition in January 2023 (seven).

The Hammers have also managed just one victory in their last eight away games in all competitions, coming from a 1-0 victory at Arsenal in February.

All four of their away wins in the Premier League this season have been to nil – the Hammers have not won any of their last 15 on the road when conceding at least once (D5 L10).

OPTA WIN PROBABILITY

Brighton – 55.9%

Draw – 22.2%

West Ham – 22%