SORRY FOR YOUR BOSS
West Ham 3 Leicester City 2
Boys will be boys, it seems, and the absence of three of the key Leicester boys, Choudhury, Maddison and Perez connected to a Covid-19 breach, is a choice made by manager Brendan Rodgers. As Maddison is a contender for Leicester’s player of the season for 2020-21, this has to be very welcome news for West Ham, themselves without Rice and now Antonio, the latter since his hamstring pull at Wolves on Monday night.
Playing Leicester City at this point in the season gives West Ham a chance both to retain their fourth position, gained after Monday evening’s victory, and to close the gap with the team in third position to a single point.
Most of the first half hour is a cagey affair with both sides’ defences outwitting their strike forces, but things change when a West Ham break culminates in Coufal’s reverse ball across from the right wing which is curled exquisitely past the last Leicester defender and Schmeichel’s outstretched left hand into the corner of the net by Lingard.
Leicester look stunned. They have only been beaten once away from home in 15 Premier League matches this season, so for West Ham to suggest they might challenge that stat is a little cheeky. It proves even more than that towards the end of the first half when Hammers hit a second. It’s another example of the support to the strike force provided by the back five. This time it’s Diop, whose unchartered long ball finds Bowen who slips it across for Lingard to tap in his second. The pair of them seem to have got into so much space that the goal is momentarily given the VAR once over, but to no avail for Leicester.
West Ham come out first for the second half, which is hardly surprising as Rodgers must be giving his side the once over of their respective careers. His teams have gained a reputation for being the equivalent of the South African cricket team choking in sight of the trophy window. The beginning of the second half does nothing to challenge this comparison as within three minutes the Hammers have gone three up. Iheanacho is robbed by Masuaku, whose ball is forwarded from Souček to Bowen, and within four passes the ball is in the back of the Leicester net for the third time.
Cresswell seems to have pulled something, and though he comes back on after initially going down, he is eventually replaced by Balbuena. One thing Moyes has managed to do this season is find a way to accommodate the talents of both Cresswell and Masuaku in the same starting eleven. Both started their careers as orthodox left backs, but Masuaku is now playing in a back five with Cresswell. I am just hoping that he now plays well without his shadow.
There are still 42 minutes left, and with injury time you could easily say that is half the game still to go. If so, you would be right, though Hammers hit a fourth through an Issa Diop far post header from a quickly taken Mark Noble free kick, which this time is ruled out by VAR for offside, accompanied on the broadcast by some comedy booing.
Leicester stick at it and are finally rewarded in the 70th minute when Ricardo hassles Masuaku into giving the ball away to Iheanacho who thunders it mercilessly past Fabianski. Arthur is clearly already missing his shadow, and Hammers have to regroup.
Mark Noble, astride his 400th Premier League appearance, is substituted in the 82nd minute for fresh legs in the shape of Ben Johnson. A member of the Sky staff to my left comments that Noble has given the captain’s armband to Mike Dean before leaving the field, but before the Mike Dean show is allowed to continue as never before, the band is handed to Lucasz Fabianski.
Hammers hang on until injury time which Mike Dean somehow calculates to be six minutes. Sloppy bum time. Nothing squeaky about this, as seen when Iheanacho hits a second for Leicester, after a neat cross from impressive substitute Marc Albrighton. David Moyes suddenly looks like a man who has been stuffed with suppositories. Mike Dean still has time to send Souček off for a minor bogus infringement before Schmeichel comes up for a 97th minute corner, but Fofana heads the final chance just wide. I manage a hurried sigh before looking round to see if anyone near me has had a stroke.
West Ham now have 55 points from 31 games, having won 16 of these, more than half their Premier League fixtures this season. They have never won more than 16 games in a PL season, which shows what an achievement this is for David Moyes and his Hammers’ entourage. But please, boys, score at least four next time.
1 Lucasz Fabianski, 5 Vladimir Coufal, 23 Issa Diop, 26 Arthur Masuaku, 15 Craig Dawson, 3 Aaron Cresswell, 16 Mark Noble (c), 18 Pablo Fornals, 28 Tomas Souček, 11 Jesse Lingard, 20 Jarrod Bowen
Substitutes: 4 Fabián Balbuena, 31 Ben Johnson, 9 Saïd Benrahma,
Scorers: Jesse Lingard (2), Jarrod Bowen
