West Ham United vs Leicester City. Premier League.
London StadiumAttendance62,459.
Report and free match highlights as Harvey Barnes added a late Leicester second to seal the victory; Youri Tielemans sees a first-half penalty saved by Lukasz Fabianski; Tomas Soucek had the ball in the back of the net for West Ham, but it was ruled out for offside
Saturday 12 November 2022 20:44, UK
James Maddison scored his seventh Premier League goal of the season, but was taken off injured as Leicester beat West Ham 2-0, with the Hammers booed off at full-time.
Maddison, who was named in Gareth Southgate's 26-man squad for the 2022 World Cup, fired home inside eight minutes to mark his call-up in style.
But 17 minutes later, Maddison went down clutching his lower leg. After being seen by the medical team, he walked off without appearing to limp and later took his place in the Leicester dugout, not seeming too concerned by his knock.
After the game, Maddison allayed fears of a serious injury, saying: "It should be fine. Yeah, I think so," with Brendan Rodgers adding of the player's knock: "He's fine, just precautionary really. A little bit of soreness on the side of his knee. He hasn't trained a lot this week after the Everton game. He's OK."
Back on the pitch, West Ham will feel they should have come away with at least a point, dominating the shot count with 18 to Leicester's nine. Tomas Soucek had the ball in the back of the net in the first half, but it was ruled out for offside.
Lukasz Fabianski also made a sensational save from Youri Tielemans' penalty - given after a clumsy Craig Dawson challenge on Patson Daka - but Harvey Barnes (78) made sure of the points late on after a superb run from Ayoze Perez.
The win sends Leicester into 12th with 17 points from their opening 15 games, which will be a welcome sight after a difficult start. West Ham were booed by their fans at the full-time whistle and drop a place into 16th spot, now losing four of their last five Premier League games.
When asked if he could understand the fans' reaction after the game, David Moyes said: "Of course. This club is now used to being in the top six or seven for the last couple of years so I can understand that."
It took just eight minutes for Leicester to find the net at the London Stadium. Barnes picked out the space for Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall to run in to, with his cross through the area helped on by Patson Daka. Maddison was then unmarked towards the back post, firing the ball into the top of the net.
Leicester could have added a second in the 21st minute. It was a superb solo run from Daniel Amartey before sending a fizzing effort goalwards, but Fabianski's acrobatic save flicked the ball behind for a corner.
After Maddison's departure, West Ham began to rack up the chances. Said Benrahma saw his shot from close range stopped by Danny Ward, before Lucas Paqueta missed a string of chances.
West Ham thought they had equalised just after half an hour. Jarrod Bowen was played through before cutting the ball back for Soucek to hammer home. However, Bowen was yards offside and the linesman's flag was correctly raised.
Leicester were awarded a penalty shortly before the break after Dawson's clumsy foul on Daka inside the area. West Ham continued to play for a few minutes, with the referee consulting the pitchside monitor once play was halted.
He soon awarded Leicester the penalty, but Tielemans' driven effort was brilliantly saved by Fabianski.
But Fabianski was largely a spectator for the second half as West Ham continued to probe for the equaliser. They went close in the 65th minute after a swift counter.
Declan Rice strode through the midfield before picking out Paqueta down the right wing. His fizzing ball through the area only needed a touch, but Gianluca Scamacca could not quite get there.
Not long after and Leicester made sure of the points. Second-half substitute Perez drove through the middle before picking out Barnes in behind, who finished first time, sending the ball underneath Fabianski.
While Maddison has taken many of the recent headlines, Barnes has also been having a brilliant season so far. He added another goal to his tally after also scoring a late second against Everton last weekend and topped the Leicester team for shots (2), total dribbles (4) and won half of his eight aerial duels.
West Ham manager David Moyes:
"We played much better today, but it's another defeat. I thought we played well, which is quite difficult to say when you lose 2-0 but I thought we made plenty of opportunities, we had a lot of the game at times.
"We gave away a really poor second goal when we were well on top at the time. But we should never have gone behind, we started the game very well and we found ourselves a goal down."
Can you understand boos at full time? "Of course. This club us now used to being in the top six or seven for the last couple of years so I can understand that.
"I think it's always fair [to discuss Moyes' future after recent results]. I've been a manager for a long time but again, sometimes it's easy to forget how well we've done. We've just won a group in Europe and we also got to a semi-final in Europe. The last couple of years, it's been six or seventh [finishes in the Premier League].
"I hope that would come into their thoughts, but obviously, if you're not doing so well, you're always under pressure.
"We've played 24 games [in the first half of the season], more than anybody, I think we've only had two days of recovery for 13 games so we've had a difficult schedule, which has to be considered.
"But of course, the big thing that has to be considered is the results and where you are in the league, that's what people want to see.
"We work with the players every day so we're doing that just not - it's not like we haven't been working with them, we're constantly working to try and improve them. And I've got to say, over the last few years, these players have improved greatly."
Leicester manager Brendan Rodgers:
"We showed flashes in the game where we were excellent. We played some good football, especially in the beginning. We were not as fluent today as we have been in other games, loose with our passing, but what we have is that resilience and you've the effort and commitment of the players not to concede a goal.
"Their organisation was good on the field - we blocked on the field, we tracked runners when we had to and then we know we can score goals.
"And we scored two very good goals. Barnsey's goal is a great demonstration of a desire from a deep position to go up and support the front. Ayzoe's pass was sublime and he gets the finish. It's a good victory for us.
"The opening seven games were a challenge, but the players have responded magnificently and it's great for them. They understand the challenges that we had, but the whole club, the team, the staff very much stayed together and that's what allowed us to keep working to our process and eventually, those results started to come.
"We want to attack every game, but certainly where we've arrived now, we can go away, rest a little bit, but work hard during this of period and we've got a great game against Newcastle on Boxing Day. So we'll be ready and looking forward to that."
West Ham visit Arsenal on Boxing Day at 8pm after the World Cup break while Leicester host Newcastle on the same day at 3pm.
