Key events
Half time: West Ham 2-0 Leicester City
James Justin drills a free-kick into the West Ham wall, the last action of a one-sided half. Leicester were disciplined in defence for most of the half, but they were far too passive and gave away two ugly goals. They look like a team who, even in February, can’t wait for the season to end.
45+1 min Ruud van Nistelrooy threw his hands in disgust after that second goal. Leicester were a bit unfortunate with the deflection but equally Bowen reacted first to the loose ball even though there were defenders all around him.
44 min Replays from the other side show how the goal came about. The corner was headed by Vardy against the body of Bowen, who seized on the loose ball and forced a speculative shot with his right foot. It took a deflection off Vestergaard and went through the left hand of Hermansen, who had no time to react to the deflection.
That may eventually go down as an own goal – it’s not clear whether Bowen’s shot was on target.
Ward-Prowse’s corner from the left was half blocked ahead of the near post. Bowen collected the loose ball and poked a shot from a tight angle that somehow found its way into the net.
GOAL! West Ham 2-0 Leicester (Bowen 43)
How has Jarrod Bowen scored from there?
42 min Jamie Vardy, playing up front for Leicester tonight, must have touched the ball half a dozen times at most. Their attacking players are pretty good – Vardy, Buonanotte, De Cordova-Reid, El-Khannouss – but they have absolutely no confidence.
40 min “Wait, you can’t leave it like that,” writes Sam MB. “Your cat’s name! Is it Gene? Popeye? The people want to know while West Ham smack Leicester around like Superman did Lex Luthor.”
It’s Royal. Mainly because he looks quite like Royal Tenenbaum, and is equally self-important.
39 min Bowen tries to give Hermansen the eyes from the edge of the area but drags his shot well wide of the near post.
38 min See 34 min. I don’t know what to say, West Ham are just passing the ball left and right, trying to find an opening. The goal aside, Leicester have actually defended pretty well. But they’ve been so poor in possession.
35 min “Ah, League Ladders,” says Tim Woods. “The Shoot! ones came out during the school holidays, and I remember a fraught week in the Lake District worrying if the small village shop would stock it. And the Scottish lower leagues always came out first, meaning that I retain, to this day, an unnecessarily detailed knowledge of the grounds and strips of Alloa, Clydebank and their ilk. Happy days, the rain and piss-poor cagoules notwithstanding.”
I’d totally forgotten that the Scotland lower leagues were first. These days there’d probably be an outcry, the Shoot! editor would be forced to resign and their successor would talk about taking the learnings.
34 min Much of the first half has felt like a training session: West Ham attack v Leicester defence. It’s not a battering – they haven’t created enough chances for that – but West Ham are very comfortable.
32 min That early shot from Ndidi remains Leicester’s only attempt at goal, on or off target. West Ham have had three: the goal, the Kudus shot just before the goal and another one I’ve contrived to forget already.
29 min Leicester look bereft of confidence. They’re not dreadful, just flat.
25 min Scarles’ cross deflects behind for a corner, a reflection of West Ham’s increasing dominance. On the touchline, Ruud van Nistelrooy looks like he’s suffering a severe strain of deja vu.
23 min It looked like Vestergaard allowed Cresswell’s cross to reach Kudus, thinking it was going through to the keeper. The angle of the replay isn’t great so I wouldn’t swear by it. Either way it was a bad moment from Buonanotte, whose rushed clearance ultimately led to the goal.
A poor clearance from Buonanotte went straight to Cresswell just outside the area. He whipped a terrific cross that was steered towards goal by Kudus, six yards out. Hermansen made a brilliant save to his left but Soucek gobbled up the rebound.
GOAL! West Ham 1-0 Leicester (Soucek 21)
Tomas Soucek celebrates his 30th birthday with a goal.
19 min “If you have a moment,” begins Daniel Stauss, “please save Peter Oh from himself and remind him that bologna is never an acceptable sandwich suggestion and anyone who would suggest such a thing is no friend of his.”
What if somebody made a sandwich in your name with bologna the main ingredient?
(NB: Clip contains adult language. Probably. Haven’t had chance to listen to the whole three minutes and it’s years since I watched it.)
17 min Vardy gets to the byline in the area but there isn’t much support and his cutback is blocked before it can reach De Cordova-Reid.
16 min Nothing much is happening so let’s have a bit more of John Barnes, footballet dancer extraordinaire.
14 min Leicester keep the ball for a minute or so. Wan-Bissaka, who is arguably in the form of his life, chases De Cordova-Reid all the way back into his own half.
12 min Nothing much to report I’m afraid. I don’t know why I said I was afraid. West Ham are probing patiently, something Graham Potter likes his teams to do, but they haven’t yet got behind the defence.
10 min “Has Gary Naylor not seen Tomas Soucek’s balletic goal celebration?” tut-tus Peter Oh. “Twirling in joyful abandon toward the corner flag. Think Gene Kelly in Singin’ in the Rain or Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music.”
On that note, sort of, RIP to a man who put the Gene in genius, and unwittingly inspired the name of my cat.
8 min So far so good for Leicester, who are defending solidly. They’re an odd team – whenever I’ve seen them they’ve played pretty well, yet their results have been dreadful.
6 min “In response to Gary Naylor’s question, I’d say some of these players had potential!” says Russell Yong.
5 min West Ham are starting to get on the ball. You’d expect them to dominate possession tonight, and for much of Graham Potter’s time at the club given his methodology.
3 min “I remember early in 2015 Jose Mourinho, then guiding Chelsea to the title, said Leicester were too good to go down,” says Gary Stover. “By the end of 2015 Jose was out of work, and Leicester, after winning in 2016, sold N’Golo Kante to Chelsea, and then in 2017…
2 min A good start from Leicester, who win an early corner. That’s cleared but Ndidi works Fabianski with a low drive from 25 yards. A comfortable save.
1 min Leicester get the game under way, kicking from right to left as we watch.
A reminder of tonight’s teams
West Ham (3-5-2) Areola; Todibo, Kilman, Cresswell; Wan-Bissaka, Soucek, Ward-Prowse, Alvarez, Scarles; Bowen, Kudus.
Substitutes: Fabianski, Soler, Mavropanos, Luis Guilherme, Ings, Rodriguez,
Emerson Palmieri, Ferguson, Irving.
Leicester (4-2-3-1) Hermansen; Justin, Faes, Vestergaard, Kristiansen; Ndidi, Soumare; Buonanotte, El Khannouss, De Cordova-Reid; Vardy.
Substitutes: Stolarczyk, Coady, Okoli, Winks, Mavididi, Ayew, Daka,
Skipp, Thomas.
“I’m at Sadler’s Wells for some contemporary dance which, a quick perusal of the prog reveals, may prove to be ‘challenging’,” says Gary Naylor. “I can’t say I wasn’t warned…
“Anyway, which footballers would cut it as ballet dancers? All three that came to my mind are Dutch – Johan Cruyff, Marco van Basten and Dennis Bergkamp. There must be more. Maybe Marta?”
With me it’s wingers who come to mind, one in particular.
“Maybe because it’s approaching the lunch hour here in the California Republic, but the top two fixtures on today’s list feature (West) Ham and Bologna are making me hungry,” says Peter oh. “I’m not sure if the football will be appetising, but at least I have some lunch sandwich suggestions. Buon appetito e Buonanotte!”
Team news
No surprise that West Ham are unchanged after that win at the Emirates. Ruud van Nisetlrooy makes three changes to the Leicester side that was thrashed by Brentford last Friday: James Justin, Jannik Vestergaard and Facundo Buonanotte replace Woyo Coulibaly, Caleb Okoli and Jordan Ayew.
West Ham (3-5-2) Areola; Todibo, Kilman, Cresswell; Wan-Bissaka, Soucek, Ward-Prowse, Alvarez, Scarles; Bowen, Kudus.
Substitutes: Fabianski, Soler, Mavropanos, Luis Guilherme, Ings, Rodriguez,
Emerson Palmieri, Ferguson, Irving.
Leicester (4-2-3-1) Hermansen; Justin, Faes, Vestergaard, Kristiansen; Ndidi, Soumare; Buonanotte, El Khannouss, De Cordova-Reid; Vardy.
Substitutes: Stolarczyk, Coady, Okoli, Winks, Mavididi, Ayew, Daka,
Skipp, Thomas.
Referee Anthony Taylor.
Preamble
If you’re of a certain age, League Ladders are probably among your happier childhood memories. They were an essential part of every football season – well, least until November when you realised your team wasn’t going to win the league or get promoted and it became far too much hassle.
By the standards of modern life, they look a bit limited. Take tonight’s match behind West Ham and Leicester City. The League Ladders – assuming you hadn’t given up in November – would show that it’s 16th v 19th in the table. But they wouldn’t tell us that these teams, just three places apart near the bottom of the Premier League, live in different worlds.
West Ham are 13 points clear of Leicester and cautiously optimistic about their future under Graham Potter, especially after Saturday’s win at Arsenal. Leicester, by contrast, are trapped in a doom loop and seem almost certain to go down.
Still, you never know. The only reason Leicester could produce the Premier League’s greatest miracle in 2015-16 was because of an extraordinary escape 12 months earlier. At one stage in 2014-15 Leicester took two points from 14 games; then, after another miserable run of two points in eight games, they found themselves bottom of the table with nine games to go, seven points off safety.
A 2-1 win over – yep – West Ham was the start of an astonishing run: seven wins out of nine, and a cosy 14th-place finish. As unlikely as it seems right now, there are precedents for a Leicester revival. But it needs to start pretty soon.
Kick off 8pm.
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