Hammers Ease To Win Over Foxes
West Ham United fans were hoping that their team wouldn’t come unstuck against newly-promoted Leicester City on Thursday night, especially after that “big” win over Arsenal five days earlier. Well, they didn’t, as they beat the Foxes 2-0.
On his 30th birthday, Tomáš Souček was selected to play in an unchanged side, while Youngster Oliver Scarles was making his full Premier League debut in front of his own fans.
Ruud van Nistelrooy’s side went into this game off the back of a 4-0 defeat by Brentford last Friday and it was easy to see why they had only won two games under their current Head-Coach. Apart from Wilfred Ndidi’s tame shot in the opening two minutes the away side created very little.
The Hammers were then able to take control but it took them twenty one minutes to open the scoring and it was Souček who had the majority inside the stadium cheering. It may have been a scrappy goal but three sides of the ground didn’t care!!! Mohammed Kudus latched onto Aaron Cresswell’s ball, visiting goalkeeper Mads Hermansen then parried the Ghanaian’s effort and Souček was there to finish the job off.
It wasn’t long before captain Jarrod Bowen had a chance to extend his team’s advantage but he unfortunately sent his shot wide of Hermansen’s goal.
Just before the break, West Ham did build on their lead. They earnt a corner and when James Ward-Prowse sent the delivery into the box, Bowen got to the ball ahead of Jamie Vardy. He then turned and sent a shot past Hermansen, although Janik Vestergaard got the final touch.
When referee Anthony Taylor blew for the break, the Irons were firmly on course to make it a good week.
Van Nistelrooy’s half-time words did spark a reaction from the visitors but to be fair, the hosts still looked comfortable. All Leicester’s attempts were repelled on their way through to goal, thus failing to test Areola.
On sixty six minutes, Graham Potter made three substitutions. Jean-Clair Todibo, Scarles and Edson Álvarez were all replaced by Konstantinos Mavropanos, Emerson Palmieri and Carlos Soler.
The Head-Coach saw his side continue to dictate proceedings before he decided to shuffle his pack once again just seven minutes later. On that occasion, he introduced Evan Ferguson in place of Kudus.
Ferguson might have made the desired impact but instead, the Irishman made a hash of his effort after being played in by Bowen.
That was the best that West Ham could muster in the closing forty five minutes and even with the late introduction of Andrew Irving for Souček, there were no more goals.
Celebrations could begin as the East Londoners moved up to fifteenth place in the table.
The Irons are next in action when they face a Monday night fixture back in Stratford as Newcastle United make the trip on March 10.