Another desperate week sees West Ham pluck defeat from the jaws of victory at Brighton while the head coach goes berserk in his post-match press conference. It’s now seven games without a win for Potter!

And so here we are again. Another game featuring questionable team selection, a shocking first half performance, improvement after the break, baffling substitutions and the sucker punch of a late goal. Topped off this week by our head coach – a student of psychology and emotional intelligence – melting as quickly as a slice of American cheese during his post-match press conference.

Pre-match expectations are increasingly managed these days by the announcement of the teams 75 minutes before kick-off.

I had fully expected Graham Potter to fall back on a 3/ 5-man defence for this much anticipated return to Brighton. After all the 4-1 defeat he suffered as Chelsea manager must still have hurt and there was no way he was going to let that happen again.

Having complained that Niclas Fullkrug’s outburst after of the Southampton game had been unhelpful, and that such frank exchanges were best aired in private, Potter made a very public statement by relegating the German to the bench. No amount of denials or flannel about managing the striker’s fitness can disguise the obvious truth, Graham.

Will he now drop himself for next week’s match following his own red-faced rant?

Fullkrug’s omission meant it was a switch back to a 3-5-2 formation of sorts, with Jarrod Bowen and Mohammed Kudus taking up narrow forward positions in front of a midfield three of Lucas Paqueta, Tomas Soucek and James Ward-Sideways.

The bonus was the return of Aaron Wan-Bissaka to resume his one-man campaign for the Hammer of the Year award.

As ever, the fly in the ointment of the Potter machine are the struggles in midfield.

Again constrained by a combination of individual limitations of the players involved and the role asked of them to maintain possession purely for the sake of it.

The dilemma (or should that be dullema) is that having played out reluctantly and uncomfortably from the back to beat a high press, the midfield faffs around with the ball for so long that opponents have ample opportunity to retreat and set a second press.

The result: no creativity, forward momentum and few scoring opportunities.

Like Lopetegui before him, Potter has prioritised a system over the player’s ability to deliver it.

Does that mean we will see improvements once the coach has assembled a squad in his own image? Possibly yes, but how many windows and how many seasons is it going to take to assemble a team capable of competing at the right end of the table?

It is a luxury and timescale that is rarely available to Premier League managers in an environment where revenues generated from league position and European competition are crucial to releasing the funds required for effective squad building. A case of forever chasing ones tail.

The high point of an otherwise drab first half at the Amex Stadium was a fine strike by Ayari for Brighton’s opener. As good a goal as it was, it owed much to the Hammer’s failure to put him under pressure. When he received the ball, there were eight West Ham outfield players inside the box but none withing 15 yards of the ball. A token Paqueta challenge was the best on offer.

Half time saw Fullkrug replace JWP allowing Bowen and Kudus to take wider positions in a 3-4-3.

Whether it was the formation and personnel changes or whether it’s just that the team are prepared to try harder after the break is anyone’s guess. The shape certainly looked better.

While the performance never convinced consistently, West Ham did contrive to take the lead through goals from Kudus and Soucek.

Both courtesy of Bowen assists underlining how more effective he is from wide positions.

The euphoria was short lived however as two Brighton goals in the closing minutes not only denied the visitors a rare victory but left them empty handed once again.

Was it a recurrence of the mentality problem? Were the players astonished – just like the week before – at the weirdness of the late substitution? The increasingly slow Vladimir Coufal brought on to play on his wrong side to fix a problem that didn’t exist. Was the real reason for Potter’s post-match meltdown a case of embarrassment for this managerial masterstroke?

There has been a Pavlovian response this season to blame Dinos Mavropanos for any goal conceded by West Ham – just as Thilo Kehrer was designated scapegoat in the past.

I find the Greek not guilty on all charges this week and would go further to suggest that Max Kilman has increasingly developed into the greater worry.

But due to negligence rather than obvious gaffes. He may be adept at winning aerial duels when they are directed straight at him, but he rarely attacks the ball or puts his body on the line – in the style of Craig Dawson or James Collins.

It’s no surprise that such a casual approach is never a threat in the opposition box at set pieces. We should rightly expect more from a £40m defender who supposedly came with leadership qualities. Oh well, he’s only here for another six years.

The Brighton equaliser was the result of leaving a man completely unmarked at the far post and then allowing Mitoma to nip in unmarked to head home.

Leaving Coufal and Kilman looking at each other in bemusement. The winner was another great strike by Baleba who again was given oceans of room to pick his spot as every West Ham player looked on admiringly from in and around their own box.

It’s 14 games now under Potter’s command. That’s no win in seven, and a grand total of 13 points earned and 14 goals scored.

It’s long enough to have taken a good look behind the curtain; to get past the bluster, puff and hot air and discover this Potter is no wizard when it comes to coaching football.

It’s a long way back from here. The question that has to be asked is whether the broken man seen in the post-match interview has what it takes to front up the challenge.

The consensus is that Potter will be (and should be) given the opportunity to preside over a summer pre-season and transfer window in an attempt to re-model the squad.

Estimates vary on how much money is available to do this and who might need to be sacrificed to fill the coffers first. After that his future will be down to results. How ironic to find the club back in the self-same position as the previous summer.

Needing to identify, negotiate, recruit and integrate a significant number of new faces – and all the problems that comes with this for a slow-burn manager needing a good start to the season.

If I was the type of person inclined towards conspiracy theories, I might suggest that all of the mayhem surrounding West Ham’s season was a dastardly act of vengeance by the West Ham chairman.

In his eyes, his genius had saved the club from oblivion, provided a world class stadium, with a world class team that had delivered a European trophy.

Yet the ungrateful supporters demanded entertainment in addition to the opportunity to buy merchandise, subscribe to membership schemes, and enjoy an open-top bus parade.

What better way to teach them a lesson and get rid of the unwanted Technical Director (who had been foisted on him by that Czech geezer) than hiring a duff manager of two.

That’ll learn them to be careful what they wish for. And show them the Chairman knows best.

I really don’t care about Sullivan’s private life, his choice of hats, or how he earned his (considerable) fortune.

But I do care about how is holding back the club at a time of increasing change. Left alone, the club will fall further and further behind.

As I have written before, its not that the board hasn’t invested in players – even if they will only ever consider recruiting out of work managers.

The problem is that West Ham is run as the owners’ plaything. For prestige and to massage their egos.

A glitzy, razmataz, exotic signing will get them moist while the hard work of data analysis, scouting and developing players leaves them cold.

Does any other aspiring top club have an enthusiastic but amateur Chairman working in the role of Director of Football. No wonder its a shambles.

Modern day West Ham has abandoned its history and community roots except when it suits for PR purposes.

It has no discernible identity and lacks even a half decent strategy for competing against the much richer clubs which dominate the football elite.

While the owners will be desperate to preserve Premier League status – and hence the club’s asset value – there lies the limit of their ambitions.

Unfortunately, current trajectory will see the Hammers among the favourites for the drop next season. We won’t always be able to rely on all three promoted clubs being rubbish. Sort it out. COYI!