Sadly, West Brom’s derby joy at the weekend didn’t extend beyond the West Midlands.

Instead, high flying West Ham United punctured that delight and halted that potential for momentum in Albion’s tracks, despite the brilliance of Matheus Pereira.

His goal cancelled out the opener from Jarrod Bowen in first half stoppage time, which had followed 45 minutes of performance promise. Michail Antonio secured all three points for the hosts after the hour mark, on an evening where Robert Snodgrass - who was in attendance - caught the headlines without playing, after it emerged that he was omitted as per an agreement between the two clubs when he joined Albion earlier this month. The Premier League are set to look into the matter.

Here are the talking points from East London.

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Unwanted distraction

Not having Snodgrass wasn’t ideal for Albion, even if they were able to prepare for it. The winger had a big impact on his debut and he’d have loved the chance himself, for sure, to leave his mark upon an instant return to the London Stadium.

It was an avoidable situation and, for the time being, is an unnecessary distraction as the FA investigate and, in time, decide on their next course of action, if any.

Truthfully, nobody stands to gain from the arrangement; you can’t see survival rivals of Albion’s being up in arms, because Albion lost another game - it’s not as though they signed him on loan but there was an agreement that he could play, so Albion stood to benefit.

As Sam Allardyce pointed out, Snodgrass wouldn’t have kept out the two goals West Ham scored here, at any rate.

Opportunity missed

This was a chance for Albion to build something. Over the course of the season you need to pick up four points from two games here, seven points from there games there; there needs to be clusters of green and yellow among the red when you look at Albion’s list of results come the end of the season.

Wins and points in isolation won’t do, and Allardyce knows it. The victory over Sheffield United stood quite alone from anything else in the form-book for Albion, aside from defeats either side and, with Manchester City next, the win at Wolves look as though it’ll be getting the same treatment.

Defensively, and when out of possession, Albion have been undeniably better in the last couple of games, but they continue to give such sloppy goals away, and at key times in the game, too. There remains a need to iron them out urgently.

Hot streak

Matheus Pereira is finally making an impact in the form of numbers again.

Game to game, he’s shown glimpses of finding his best form this season, under Slaven Bilic and more recently under Allardyce, often without the end product.

The maestro now has four goals in his last three matches and, while three of those were penalties, there can be no denying the sheer quality of the strike against West Ham here.

Needless to say, as a defender you ought not to stand off Pereira, or you’ll likely be punished. They were so. He drove forwards and plunged a superb strike beyond Lukasz Fabianski.

More of the same please, Matheus.

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Big week ahead

Allardyce and Albion’s recruitment team have a significant seven days ahead of them before the welcoming of Manchester City to The Hawthorns on Tuesday.

They’ll have their work cut out that night against a rampant side who are now the odds on favourites to reclaim the Premier League title after a run of eight successive wins, but the picture is bigger than that.

Beyond City, five Albion’s following seven matches are against Fulham, Sheffield United, Burnley, Brighton and Newcastle. It’s an enormous bundle of fixtures, and will undoubtedly shape Albion’s season and their hopes of remaining in the top flight.

To do so, they’ll need to add, and add better than what they’ve already got. Allardyce explained again on Tuesday evening after this defeat that Albion are working tirelessly to do so, but those efforts must now bear fruit as we enter the final stretch of the January transfer window.