Leicester City were left stunned as West Ham thrashed them 3-0 on Sunday afternoon to end their perfect start in the Premier League.
In a similar fashion to how Leicester dismantled Manchester City last week, West Ham showed no mercy. The visitors were ruthless on the break and deservedly claimed all three points at the King Power Stadium.
Michail Antonio broke the deadlock by heading Aaron Cresswell’s cross in at the back post in the 14th-minute. The latter played provider again before the break by playing a long ball forward for Pablo Fornals.
The Spanish midfielder controlled the ball wonderfully at the first touch and calmly slotted it past Kasper Schmeichel double West Ham’s lead.
Jarrod Bowen then cleanly put away a third goal in the final seven minutes of normal time following a through-ball from Fornals to make it back-to-back wins for the Hammers.
No Moyes, no problem
David Moyes was unavailable for the second league match in succession as he recovers from COVID-19. He has been sidelined for nearly a fortnight after testing positive for the disease, missing four matches in a row across all competitions. That included last weekend’s 4-0 win over Wolves in London.
Despite the manager’s absence, however, West Ham did another brilliant job under his assistant Alan Irvine. The Hammers were well-organised despite the unfavorable circumstances. Their performance was excellent and the three points well deserved.
The London side have also kept consecutive clean sheets to move up to seventh in the Premier League table. Considering they finished 16th last season, this is promising progress.
West Ham can now head into their next round of Premier League fixtures with confidence and, hopefully, with Moyes back in the dugout.
Michail Antonio outshines Jamie Vardy
Winning the Premier League Golden Boot last season led to talk of Jamie Vardy representing England again. But in the likely event that Gareth Southgate cannot convince the striker to end his retirement, the Three Lions boss may have a ready-made solution in Michail Antonio.
The West Ham striker isn’t the first name on many people’s minds, but who’s to say he doesn’t deserve a shot? He’s been one of the Premier League’s most reliable performers post-lockdown. In fact, the 30-year-old has scored 10 goals in his last 13 games in the English top-flight.
And while Vardy proved a threat in the early stages for Leicester, it was Antonio who instead continued his goal run by heading Cresswell’s deep cross for his second goal of West Ham’s Premier League campaign.
What happened to Leicester?
Sunday’s performance was a far cry from that memorable 5-2 win away to Manchester City last weekend. Foxes fans must be scratching their heads trying to figure out what went wrong at the King Power Stadium.
The hosts dominated possession and had the lion’s share in corner-kicks as well. But they didn’t produce a single shot on target; managing only a few overall compared to West Ham’s 12 in the match.
Then, just to rub it in further, Harvey Barnes’ late goal was disallowed after a VAR review deemed that Vardy was offside.
It not only ended Brendan Rodgers’ side 100% record for this season, but meant they could lose second to Liverpool before the weekend is over.
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