And with that I’m done. Here’s the match report again. Bye!
David Moyes does his post-match interview, and he really does get right to the heart of the matter:
I think the big thing was Leicester played well, and we didn’t play well. We can’t dress it up in any other way. I was disappointed in the performance. We improved in the second half and gave ourselves a chance, but in the end, slightly chasing the game, a bit of bad defending for the third goal gave them the goal which put the game to bed. I felt as if we’d got ourselves right back in it, and in a way we went chasing it a little bit when we should probably have just waited to try and get it. We got picked off once or twice. But as I said I thought Leicester played well.
I’d like to [bring some players in] and I think all managers would say the same. We do need players, we’re short. We need some more energy, we need some fresh legs. If we can get it we will do, but I can’t guarantee that.
Rodgers continues to insist that he’s not at all confident of securing Champions League football. This, though, was his conclusion:
For me it was about the performance tonight. Could we get back to playing the game with authority, and movement, and speed in our game. And then the results will take care of themselves.
Here’s Paul Doyle’s match report from the King Power Stadium:
Leicester got back their mojo but lost their talisman, as Jamie Vardy limped off here with a suspected hamstring injury. That did not matter against a dishevelled West Ham, as Brendan Rodgers’s side strutted to their first league win since New Year’s Day thanks to two goals by Ayoze Pérez and one each by Harvey Barnes and Ricardo Pereira. Leicester’s top-four credentials look good again.
A successful penalty by Mark Noble gave West Ham fleeting hope of scrounging a point but ultimately the visitors left with what they deserved, which was nothing other than a reminder that they need to get their act together quickly if they are to avoid being overtaken by at least one of only three teams below them in the league.
Much more here:
Brendan Rodgers is happy. Leicester fans will be particularly pleased to hear the initial update on Jamie Vardy, which is that his injury “doesn’t look too serious ... it’s just in his glute, it wasn’t his hamstring which is important”:
I think that the tempo in the team tonight was very, very good. i thought against Burnley we started to come back a bit but tonight we were outstanding. Dynamic. We were fast in our game, the passing was quick, we looked to dominate the ball and play with that authority. That’s how we’ve been for most of the season, with that personality.
He’s asked if he saw the recent blip coming:
You’ve got to remember where these guys have come from. This is a team that’s been ninth in the table the last couple of seasons and now we’re getting compared with Liverpool and Man City. So we’ve got a long, long way to go. But these guys have been amazing. Tonight we talked about getting back to how we play, and I thought they were excellent.
Final score: Leicester City 4-1 West Ham United
90+5 mins: And that’s it! Leicester deservedly win, but West Ham had an excellent half-hour after half-time.
90+4 mins: One last run down the left from Chilwell, but Rice gets in his way, and then Zabaleta ushers the ball out of play. A goal kick to end things.
90+3 mins: I would like to tell you about something interesting that has happened in stoppage time, but sadly I am unable.
90+1 mins: There will be four minutes of stoppage time, or thereabouts.
GOAL! Leicester 4-1 West Ham (Perez, 88 mins)
And it ends with another goal! The ball comes in from the right, comes off Perez to Iheanacho, comes back off Iheanacho to Perez, and his snap-shot goes in off the far post!
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87 mins: West Ham’s second half effort was admirable, but the game has settled back into a first-halfian rhythm of Leicester control.
84 mins: Nearly another! Chilwell had a shooting chance very similar to Ricardo’s in the first half, but not the finish to match. Randolph pushes clear.
83 mins: Harvey Barnes goes off, and Wes Morgan comes on.
GOAL! Leicester 3-1 West Ham (Perez, 81 mins)
Randolph goes low to his left, Ayoze Perez goes high the other way, and this match is surely won!
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Leicester penalty!
Ogbonna tries to stop Iheanacho inside the area, and gets man before ball. The referee would have pointed to the spot anyway, obviously, but I think he’s got this right.
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78 mins: Haller’s dummy allows Antonio to run down the left and cut inside, but his pull-back deflects off a defender and behind. Lanzini’s corner is overhit, goes over everybody and Leicester have a goal kick.
77 mins: Another Leicester free kick for nothing whatsoever. I’m not normally one for referee-bashing, but this David Coote character needs a proper talking-to.
75 mins: Lovely shot from Maddison, dipping and curling goalwards from 25 yards, and Randolph flicks out a right hand to tip over the bar!
74 mins: Another soft free kick. Leicester’s players have worked out that they only need to fall over to get the referee whistling, and so are doing quite a lot of it.
72 mins: The referee, having angered the home fans with the penalty and a couple of other decisions during that phase of the game, has spent the last 10 minutes giving the home side everything he possibly can. Chilwell goes down near Antonio, and he decides that’s a free kick as well, ludicrously.
70 mins: Leicester run down the other end, slicing and dicing West Ham’s rearguard along the way, and Perez has a shot that Randolph palms behind!
68 mins: Chance for West Ham! The corner leads to another corner, from which Ogbonna heads over! The referee gives Leicester a free-kick, though from the replays it’s unclear whether this was because someone was pulling Ogbonna’s shirt, or because two people were wrestling Haller. I couldn’t see any West Ham player fouling anyone.
67 mins: Zabaleta surges down the right and wins a corner. That’s right, he surges.
64 mins: This is a battle now. Instead of the often slow procession of half one there are lots of players running about, often into each other.
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61 mins: Antonio wins the race to a ball lifted down the right flank and translates it into a corner, from which he very nearly backheels past Schmeichel!
57 mins: West Ham win a free-kick, just inside Leicester’s half, which is floated into the Leicester area and leads to a corner. That alone is more than they accomplished in the first half.
55 mins: This half has been a complete contrast to the first, in that both teams are playing in it.
54 mins: Tielemans lashes a volley wide from 20 yards. Chilwell was probably fouled in the build-up, but Perez probably committed a foul, so that’s honours evens. Goal kick.
52 mins: Haller and Soyuncu battle for the ball on the Leicester left. Soyuncu wins it, but Haller leaves a boot hooked around his opponent’s leg, stopping him from running free. The assistant referee, barely two yards away, thinks this is fine, but the referee gives a foul. “You don’t know what you’re doing,” shout the home fans, presumably at the refereeing team as a unit.
GOAL! Leicester 2-1 West Ham (Noble, 50 mins)
Schmeichel jumps out of the way, and Noble sends the ball down the middle!
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49 mins: The VAR is giving this a good, long look. Ndidi does make contact with Haller’s knee, but the player’s fall looks fabricated. The VAR decides that there was a foul, though, and confirms the penalty.
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West Ham have a penalty!
48 mins: A free kick is pushed away by Schmeichel. Ndidi and Haller go for the loose ball, and the West Ham player gets there first and goes down!
46 mins: And Antonio has a shot within 15 seconds, flicking the ball on for Haller, getting it back and then slashing wide.
46 mins: West Ham start the second half, and have made a double substitution at the break, bringing Fornals and Antonio on for Snodgrass and Masuaku.
The players are back out and ready for more. Hold on to your hats!
“Having now lost three first-choice strikers to injury do you think this might be the season that England finally pulls its head out of its arse about the ridiculous number of games players are required to slog through in five winter weeks?” asks Matthew Turner. Almost certainly not, would be my guess. They could move a couple of these midwinter midweek matchdays to other less full-on times of the year, though.
This has really been embarrassingly one-sided. Harvey Barnes and Ricardo Pereira have a goal and an assist each and the former has been the best player so far, but it’s been an excellent team performance. Really, though, they’re not exactly being pushed.
Half time: Leicester 2-0 West Ham
45+6 mins: And that’s it! Two goals and two injuries for Leicester, who have been entirely dominant.
45+5 mins: Barnes gets down the left, cuts inside and picks out a lovely pass to Ricardo Pereira, bursting into the right-hand corner of the penalty area, who thumps a shot back across goal and in!
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GOAL! Leicester 2-0 West Ham (Ricardo Pereira, 45+5 mins)
In the final seconds of the half, Leicester double their lead!
45+3 mins: Zabaleta makes Barnes look like a kind of turbocharged Usain Boult, but with the Leicester man box-bound Cresswell comes across to make a vital challenge.
45+2 mins: Masuaku beats Ricardo on the left, and then pauses for no obvious reason until Ricardo comes back to tackle him.
45+1 mins: There will be about four minutes of first-half stoppage time. There have, to be fair, been quite a lot of stoppages.
44 mins: Vardy has gone off, and Kelechi Iheanacho has come on.
43 mins: Nope, he’s gone down again.
42 mins: The entire stadium seems to have fallen silent, as the physio gets to work on Vardy’s left leg. After a while, he gets up and jogs to the touchline. Looks like we have witnessed a magic recovery.
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40 mins: More injury issues for Leicester. Vardy boots the ball with his left foot and immediately clutches his left buttock and collapses.
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38 mins: Another good Leicester move ends with another disappointing Leicester delivery. There has been a lot of home possession but only limited goal threat. Still, they’re winning, so who’s complaining?
35 mins: Leicester have another corner. This has been quite a cornerful match, so far.
34 mins: Mendy’s match is over. Wilfred Ndidi comes on, just 13 days after knee surgery.
32 mins: Uncannily, Mendy has gone down off the ball, the physio has come on, and Mendy is grimacing and pointing to his left knee.
31 mins: West Ham win a corner. Snodgrass, who has miraculously recovered, hits it, and Schmeichel catches it.
29 mins: Play eventually restarts with a Leicester corner, which is crossed in by Maddison, cleared, crossed in by Maddison, cleared and crossed in by Maddison, Randolph eventually claiming.
27 mins: The physio is on, and Snodgrass is grimacing and pointing to his left knee. On the bench, Pablo Fornals strips off.
26 mins: Leicester pass the ball about inside West Ham’s half, and while they do so Snodgrass slowly goes to ground, off the ball.
24 mins: The goal stands! Pereira bursts into the penalty area and hits a cross-shot that would have gone wide had Barnes not thundered in to smash it home from half a yard. Happily the six-yard line made it abundantly clear with a simple freeze-frame that Barnes was behind the ball when Pereira hit it, so all’s good.
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GOAL! Leicester 1-0 West Ham (Barnes, 24 mins)
Ye VAR will check this for offside, but it looks good on first viewing!
22 mins: Leicester’s dominance has diminished somewhat. Their share of possession is down to just 75% now.
20 mins: Ricardo takes on Masuaku again, but the Congolese full-back wins the duel.
17 mins: Leicester raid down the right, but then Ricardo Pereira goes down ludicrously easily with Masuaku breathing in his vague vicinity, and the referee rightly ignores him.
15 mins: An awkward corner, which Schmeichel comes for and flaps unconvincingly onto the head of Cresswell, who lifts his header over the bar.
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14 mins: West Ham have an attack! It ends with Snodgrass cutting onto his left foot and shooting straight into Barnes’ calf. The ball deflects for a corner.
13 mins: Perez’s shot deflects to Pereira, whose follow-up shot is rubbish. Goal kick.
13 mins: Leicester have had 84% of possession so far. Most of West Ham’s 16% has presumably been the time the ball has spent in the air after goal-kicks.
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12 mins: Another move down the left. This time Mendy’s cross flies straight across the penalty area and out the other side.
9 mins: Vardy runs down the left, but there’s only one player for him to aim his cross at and he doesn’t find him, Ogbonna clearing.
7 mins: Leicester win a corner, but it’s headed clear. The ball briefly enters Leicester’s half.
6 mins: These have been six very one-sided minutes.
5 mins: Robbie Savage has just turned on his microphone, so there is now a two-man commentary team in play. Leicester get down the left again, but can’t find the cross.
4 mins: Shot! Leicester maraud down the left, Maddison dummies the cut-back and it runs to Vardy, who can’t bring it under control, starts falling over and spears a shot straight at Randolph as he does so.
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1 min: Perez bursts forward, but plays his through-ball precisely into the part of West Ham’s area that contained no Leicester players.
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1 min: Peeeeeep! Leicester get the ball rolling. Interestingly (well, potentially) there appears to be no co-commentator on BT Sport duty tonight. I’m not sure when I last heard a game with solo commentary.
A reminder of the week’s very best West Ham-related stat: they have used as many goalkeepers in their last six games as in the 15 years from 1973 to 1988.
West Ham starting goalkeepers in league:
— Bill Edgar (@BillEdgarTimes) January 20, 2020
4 in past 6 games (Fabianski, Martin, Roberto, Randolph)
4 from 1973 to 1988 (Day, Ferguson, Parkes, McAlister).
Numbers column:https://t.co/MijTHh3sbW pic.twitter.com/G93Svgxe3y
And out they come! Indeed, they’re busy shaking hands as I type.
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The players are in the tunnel/carpeted lobby area!
Brendan Rodgers has a quick chat with BT Sport.
For me our assessment’s at the end of the season. You always have to stay positive, and up until now the players have been brilliant but we’ve got to ensure we’re not going to play for half a season. We want to push on, and if we get three points tonight it takes us another step towards where we want to be.
On leaving Praet and Choudhury out of tonight’s squad entirely:
I can only pick 18 players, and we’ve got a squad of 25, which means that some players miss out. You’re always looking at your team, you’re looking at your bench, in order to keep that intensity in your team. We’ve got a strong team tonight, but we’ve got important games also after tonight.
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Tonight’s big scoreline (so far) comes from the Copa del Rey, where a Barcelona side including Rakitic, Griezmann, De Jong, Lenglet and the highly-rated whippersnappers Riqui Puig and Ansu Fati is a goal down at Ibiza, having had only one shot in the first half.
⏱ HALF-TIME | 1-0 | WHAT. A. HALF. from our side!! Definitely creating history tonight, whatever the final result! IBIZA 😍#CopaDelRey #IbizaBarça
— UD Ibiza English (@ibizaud_en) January 22, 2020
Two changes for Leicester, for whom Youri Tielemans and Ben Chilwell come in. West Ham make one change, bringing Arthur Masuaku in and dropping Pablo Fornals to the bench.
The teams!
Tonight’s game will be played by humans with the following names:
Leicester: Schmeichel, Ricardo Pereira, Evans, Soyuncu, Chilwell, Mendy, Perez, Tielemans, Maddison, Barnes, Vardy. Subs: Justin, Morgan, Gray, Albrighton, Ward, Iheanacho, Ndidi.
West Ham: Randolph, Diop, Ogbonna, Cresswell, Zabaleta, Snodgrass, Rice, Noble, Masuaku, Lanzini, Haller. Subs: Reid, Balbuena, Sanchez, Fornals, Martin, Ajeti, Antonio.
Referee: David Coote.
Here's your #lcfc 1️⃣1️⃣ to play West Ham - sponsored by @eToro 🔵
— Leicester City (@LCFC) January 22, 2020
Here's how we line up for #LEIWHU pic.twitter.com/3topHrnKdH
— West Ham United (@WestHam) January 22, 2020
Hello world!
Poor Leicester. Just a few weeks ago (around 12 December, to be precise) they were in second place, six points ahead of Manchester City and a potentially recoverable eight adrift of Liverpool having played the same number of games, the title challenge very much on. But then, the wheels came off. Over their last six games they have won a mere seven points, just-about-relegation-dodging form, and suddenly they are 19 points behind Liverpool having played a game more, and six behind City having played one (this one, to be specific) less.
A match at home to the 17th-best team in the division might look like an excellent opportunity to resume normal service, but that would ignore the disappointing results against Aston Villa, Burnley and Southampton over the last couple of weeks, the fact that since early-mid December West Ham have precisely as many points as them, and their recent record of two points from their last four home games. As for West Ham, their home defeat to Leicester last month was the death knell for Manuel Pellegrini, who got the boot that very evening. Since then, the Hammers have, er, beaten Bournemouth. Still, it’s early days for David Moyes.
The Scot insists that he has discerned an improvement in his players. “It’s down to the players’ attitudes, and their attitudes have been so good,” he says. “I’ve seen it in their stats.” Which is good, because he sure as hell hasn’t seen it in the team’s results.
Last night there was all sorts of madness going on - ludicrous stoppage-time comebacks, ludicrous stoppage-time winners, teams that had completely forgotten how to win remembering how to win, teams only having two shots of any description in the entire game and scoring with both of them - and with any luck there’ll be more of the same tonight. Fingers crossed, eh?
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