After last week’s great win against Arsenal our old friend expectation was unleashed at the Boleyn ground, as Leicester came into town to play the Hammers. However our opponents were on a high having won 4-2 against Sunderland on the opening day of the season.
WHU start young Reece Oxford again, in his place in front of the back four. This, as much as it hurts to say, was our undoing. WHU started well hitting the bar after 2 minutes from another great free kick from our buy of the season Payet. After the first 10 minutes of all out assault we reverted to a Sam style play from the back model, with Reid and Ogbonna swapping passes constantly and failing to come forward. Oxford was sort of caught up in this and it was noticeable that he was lost, and Leicester’s shape meant he had no one to mark either giving him no focus.
This led to him missing the pass from Vardy to Okazaki for the first, and also being caught out coming back when he should of been marking Mahrez for the second. However I wont lay everything at his young door, as our midfield should be been keener in supporting the front 2 and maybe keeping the ball up the other end.
So we go in at half time 2 down and it was time for Bilic to earn his money. He obviously said something because WHU came out flying in the second half, and within 10 minutes Payet had reduced the deficit to 1 after taking a great chance at the second opportunity. We continued to attack and a draw was on the cards but Leicester knew this and started to slow the game down. Near the end Sakho had a great chance in front of goal, which was stopped by the diving body of Schmeichel .
We are now into time added on and WHU apply more pressure, THEN, Adrian comes up for a corner. As the ball is cleared Adrian sees his chance for an overhead kick back into the box. Without taking stock of his surroundings he goes for it. And boots a Leicester player straight in the chest and gets a straight red. This is a problem. We will now have Darren Randolph in the sticks for the next 3 games.
This is the real West Ham way, just when you think it’s going well, we literally kick ourselves down.
MOTM for WHU Payet. Great goal, and great all round effort. Special shout out to Mahrez for Leicester who also looks a quality player.
Mrben09 