West Ham 2-0 Leicester: Hammers secure back-to-back victories as Ruud van Nistelrooy’s side slump to yet another defeat in relegation battle
Graham Potter must never have imagined managing West Ham could be as simple and carefree as this.
This is a job that’s meant to be tumultuous, dramatic, fraught with stress with and drama and a complete unawareness of what your team might serve up next.
He’s endured that in his short reign so far, too. A dreadful defeat at home by Brentford last week was followed up by a remarkable win at Arsenal. To follow that with the visit of Leicester was surely a classic West Ham banana skin in waiting.
Yet the Hammers have rarely had it so easy as strikes from Tomas Soucek and an own goal from Jannik Vestergaard secured West Ham’s first back-to-back league wins since March last year.
Potter’s side knocked it about with such ease and under such little pressure that by the time Evan Ferguson missed the chance to make it 3-0 late on, there was so little jeopardy in the contest that it almost felt like it didn’t matter. It would have been nice for the loanee to get his first goal for the club but, ah well, never mind.
If anything summed up the malaise of Leicester’s relegation fight, or lack of it, it was centre back Vestergaard, who failed to cut out a ball into the box for West Ham’s opener before turning the ball into his own net for their second on the verge of half-time.
West Ham have rarely had it as easy as they did in beating Leicester 2-0 on Thursday evening
Tomas Soucek opened the scoring, with Jannik Vestergaard failing to cut out the ball before also scoring an own goal
Graham Potter must never have imagined managing West Ham could be as simple and carefree as this
It was a victory over West Ham that kick-started Leicester’s survival bid 10 years ago, sparking a run of seven wins from their final nine games that kept them up against all the odds after spending most of the season bottom of the table. The following season, they achieved the impossible and won the title under Claudio Ranieri.
On this showing, there’s zero chance of either of those happening again as they fell to their 11th defeat in their last 12 league matches.
They did, at least, have the first attempt of the game after two minutes when Wilfred Ndidi fired one straight at Alphonse Areola from the edge of the area.
‘We’ve had a shot,’ came the sarcastic chants from the travelling Leicester fans, who have watched their side fail to find the net in five of their last seven outings.
For a West Ham team that came into this having just beaten Arsenal, there was neither the early zip in their play nor the buzz of anticipation from the supporters that you might have expected to bring the London Stadium to life.
Birthday boy Tomas Soucek changed that on 21 minutes as he responded quickest when Mohammed Kudus saw his close-range shot saved by Mads Hermansen, only for the goalkeeper to parry it to the West Ham midfielder for a late present.
There had been little between the sides until then but a piece of quality from Aaron Cresswell to fizz a dangerous ball into the box matched by a complete lack of willing from Vestergaard to make any sort of effort to stop it reaching Kudus made the difference and told you why one of these sides look to be moving forwards and the other is set for the drop.
From there, it was all West Ham. They moved it around neatly in front of Leicester’s goal, probing away as the Foxes nothing in return.
Ruud van Nistelrooy’s Leicester lost for the 11th time in their last 12 Premier League games
Evan Ferguson missed a good chance to make it 3-0 and score his first goal for the club
Bowen fired a shot wide and then, on the stroke of half-time, doubled the lead.
The West Ham skipper got the better of Vardy at the near post from a James Ward-Prowse corner, then rifled the ball into the net through a crowd of bodies, via deflections off Vestergaard and Hermansen.
Ruud van Nistelrooy turned away and threw his arms to the floor in disgust – and you couldn’t blame him. He’d just watched his side concede first for the 22nd time this season and show nothing in response.
He got nothing after the break either as West Ham continued to knock it around under little pressure. Rarely this season have they ever been able to slip into cruise control like this.
Leicester made a couple of changes around the hour and improved a bit. But not by much. They had a bit more possession, they pressed a bit more, they flung a few more balls into the box and forced West Ham’s defenders to make a couple more clearing headers.
It was only the sight of Ferguson missing a late chance to grab his first goal for the club that stopped this simple, straightforward contest being the perfect night.
