Here’s Peter Lansley’s report from the King Power.
David Moyes spoke to Sky Sports.
You have to remember [Leicester were] winning the FA Cup and league title not so long away. They have some really good players here, we are trying to stick at it, we have had some difficulties and still pulling out wins and results.
In the first half I felt annoyed after going into a good lead and gave them a leg up. It says lots for the players, we have come quickly and made massive strides in the last couple of years. I will squeeze everything out of them and I want us to challenge the top teams.”
[Zouma] was ill before the game, wanted to play, we wanted him to play as well. He was sick during the night, he stayed away from the players and did not eat much. Once he got out he did not think it was possible. We told Issa Diop to be ready. It is a stomach bug, probably something he has eaten.
Brendan Rodgers spoke to Sky Sports.
We have had a few of them lately, deflating for the players. Second half we were outstanding and first half West Ham were better. Second half was like watching us of old, speed of the game and chances. That is seven points dropped in our last three games from good positions, it is disappointing. There was anxiety there but possession is a mantra, you have to take the ball and be brave. Naturally, when you are inconsistent the crowd will be edgy. Second half we got up the pitch.
Firstly [Youri Tielemans] has not declined [a new contract]. I have seen stories but the position is exactly the same. He is a fantastic player and there has been no movement. He has worked well and until his last days here, he will always give his best. He is a top professional and you saw his commitment today.
West Ham stayed in fourth but may rue only getting a point. Leicester’s indifferent run continues, even if they were signs of improvement.
| Pos | Team | P | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Man City | 25 | 47 | 63 |
| 2 | Liverpool | 24 | 42 | 54 |
| 3 | Chelsea | 24 | 30 | 47 |
| 4 | West Ham | 25 | 11 | 41 |
| 5 | Man Utd | 24 | 6 | 40 |
| 6 | Arsenal | 22 | 9 | 39 |
| 7 | Wolverhampton | 23 | 4 | 37 |
| 8 | Tottenham Hotspur | 22 | -1 | 36 |
| 9 | Brighton | 23 | 2 | 33 |
| 10 | Southampton | 24 | -7 | 29 |
| 11 | Leicester | 22 | -5 | 27 |
| 12 | Aston Villa | 23 | -5 | 27 |
| 13 | Crystal Palace | 24 | -3 | 26 |
| 14 | Brentford | 25 | -14 | 24 |
| 15 | Leeds | 23 | -19 | 23 |
| 16 | Everton | 22 | -10 | 22 |
| 17 | Newcastle | 23 | -19 | 21 |
| 18 | Norwich | 24 | -36 | 17 |
| 19 | Watford | 23 | -20 | 15 |
| 20 | Burnley | 21 | -12 | 14 |
Declan Rice and Craig Dawson speak to Sky Sports.
DR: “Disappointment really, first half we was excellent, we could have used our chances better. It was a good point in the end. In the first half we were so compact, Dewsbury-Hall picked up little pockets and Harvey Barnes was flying up the left. We need to still keep believing. We are a great bunch of lads and we go on to Newcastle.”
CD: “We was working hard to get the goal and luckily enough it went in. I was slightly worried, but it counted and that’s what mattered. The manager made a couple oo chanced and we put the effort until the end. A point was a fair result in the end.”
This seems a telling stat.
Leicester City have conceded 12 more Premier League goals than basement side Burnley this season. Leicester now up to 62 goals conceded in all competitions this campaign - the next worst is Norwich with 53. Genuinely calamitous numbers.
— Colin Millar (@Millar_Colin) February 13, 2022
Full-time: Leicester 2-2 West Ham
Leicester cannot defend corner, that much we know. The ball came off the sleeve of Craig Dawson to equalise late on, just as the ball came off the hand of Aaron Cresswell for the first Leicester goal. Tielemans and Ricardo’s goals followed Jarrod Bowen’s opener, and then came that late equaliser. Leicester knew what was coming if they didn’t score a third.
90+3 min: Ndidi has a dig from distance, to jeers. Brendan Rodgers a sickened man on the sidelines. That’s it, he offers a handshake to what looks a downcast David Moyes.
Updated
90+2 min: Can West Ham do what Tottenham and Stephen Bergwijn did? Surely not. Leicester’s glass jaw exposed again.
Goal! Leicester 2-2 West Ham (Dawson, 90+1)
Benrahama has yet another sighter, and his shot deflects behind for a corner. That spells danger for Leicester. And Dawson manages to knock the ball in. Oh Leicester, oh no. Not another late goal. VAR offers no respite. The goal stands, even if it did come off the top of Dawson’s arm.
Updated
89 min: Late sub, off goes Tielemans to applause, and on comes Vestergaard to add power at the back for Leicester.
88 min: An Antonio throw is not actually that long and is cleared. West Ham struggling to create much and Declan Rice has not had the best day in midfield.
86 min: Barnes speeds away again, Fredericks struggling with him almost as much as Coufal. Then Barnes asks to be teed up, only for Lookman to get greedy and shoot.
84 min: Off go West Ham in search of an equaliser they need. They could do with a winner beyond that, as they had a chance to open up gaps on Manchester United and Tottenham.
82 min: Benrahama suddenly has space to shoot, and it looks dangerous for a split second, only to fly wide. West Ham pushing on here. Leicester falling back. And that spells danger.
Updated
81 min: West Ham corner, and a worry for Leicester, but this one is cleared only for West Ham to win it back and force another as Ndidi slides in.
79 min: Double change for the Hammers, Vlasic and Benrahma on, off goes Fornals and Lanzini, both of whom have been disappointing.
78 min: More Barnes brillance as he scoops up the ball and Tielemans just fails to get on the end of the ball.
76 min: More Rick Harris: “I wonder did the King Power pre-game DJ have the wit to play the Squeeze song ‘Cool for Cats’ over the tannoy while Zouma was warming up? There’s a Davy Crockett reference and the immortal line She doesn’t mind the language, it’s the beatin’ she don’t need.”
They probably played some Kasabian. Though thinking about it, perhaps not. Some Showaddywaddy, maybe. Can’t go wrong with that.
75 min: Leicester are passing the ball around, trying to kill off the game. Of all the teams in the Premier League, they seem among the least equipped to get such a job done. It’s always interesting when Brendan is the manager.
73 min: Leicester change: Lookman on, and Maddison, who has been quiet and missed a good chance, goes off.
72 min: Antonio finds Fornals who whacks the ball out of play when attempting to cross.
70 min: Schmeichel rushes out and smashes the ball into the sky to clear danger as Fornals scampers towards him.
68 min: Dewsbury-Hall, another player fizzing with confidence all of a sudden, whips in a shot that’s wide. Leicester need another goal, and are chasing it down with extreme prejudice.
67 min: That’s enough from Coufal as he is replaced by the rather speedier Ryan Fredericks at West Ham’s full-back position. Fresher legs needed against Barnes.
Updated
66 min: Fornals falls in the Leicester box but no dice from the referee, Michael Oliver, and Barnes again almost forces something again. Then, he gets another chance to roast Coufal, cutting the ball back for Dewsbury-Hall to fire over.
64 min: Barnes has had Coufal on toast in this game, and West Ham are doing very little to protect their right back. This time, the danger is cleared but Barnes is really enjoying himself.
63 min: Antonio, who has not seen much of the ball in this half, looks annoyed as he chases the ball as it runs out.
Updated
62 min: Declan Rice joins the booked club, and was not happy with that, having looked to have slipped as he went through the back of Daka.
60 min: Cresswell, who has had a tough afternoon, has been booked for a foul on Ricardo, who has had a good afternoon.
58 min: So good to see Harvey Barnes and Ricardo involved; both have had troubled seasons, and Barnes looks to be overflowing with confidence.
Goal! Leicester 2-1 West Ham (Ricardo, 57)
More wizardry from Barnes off the left, great control and whips the ball in, and Ricardo speeds in, climbs highest and heads home. A fine goal. West Ham statuesque.
Updated
56 min: Barnes takes a swing as as Dewsbury-Hall free-kick bounces out but can only hit the wall. And then Leicester go so close. Barnes shows off his skill, and his cross to the back post really should be knocked in by Daka. And yet it isn’t.
54 min: Soyuncu launches the ball up front, and Barnes tries to get on the end of it, only for Bowen to make a fine tackle, and then get to his feet and carry it. A player brimming with confidence.
52 min: Leicester chase down Diop, and Fabianski is forced to get it launched. Neither team is exactly blessed with touch and verve though Barnes tries a reverse pass that Thomas fails to make the most of.
50 min: West Ham free-kick, taken by Coufal from the right and cleared. But West Ham keep the ball, and almost carve a chance for Bowen, only for his shot to be blocked.
49 min: West Ham queue for a cross, and Fornals eventually has his blocked. They are dominating possession.
48 min: Confusion between Amartey and Schmeichel sees Bowen almost steal in as West Ham are allowed to build up their own head of steam.
46 min: Back away we go at the King Power as Leicester seek to build on their improvements of the second half of the first half. Maddison, who was quiet in the first 45, has a quick chance after Diop heads away and he is too quick with it, smashing the ball into the stand.
Half-time: Leicester 1-1 West Ham
Leicester lacked in confidence, and were caught out by that Jarrod Bowen goal but made West Ham work and though fortunate to be handed the penalty by Aaron Cresswell, their efforts were rewarded. This could go either way.
45+2 min: Chance for West Ham. Antonio holds up the ball, and stands it up for Fornals who commits a foul in chasing it down.
45+1 min: Three minutes are added on to a half where Leicester have grown into the game and now have their reward, a gift in fact from Cresswell.
Goal! Leicester 1-1 West Ham (Tielemans, 45 pen)
Tielemans drills the penalty, right in the bottom left, and beyond Fabianski had guessed right. Great penalty. And Tielemans celebrates by miming a heart.
Updated
Penalty to Leicester!
43 min: Ricardo crosses again and Rice head the ball away. Soucek’s challenge on Dewsbury-Hall forces a corner. Tielemans takes, and that’s a plum handball from Cresswell. It was in an unnatural position.
41 min: Ricardo has two attempts to get a cross into the West Ham box, both fail and West Ham go up the other end. Then it goes back up to the West Ham end where Harvey Barnes fires over the bar, and wide. He curses a bobble.
39 min: Tielemans tries to get Leicester going, and fires well wide. He tries to get the home fans reared up, and they respond even if some may doubt if he is going to be at the club next season.
37 min: Not much football being played. Antonio is down after getting whack to what looks like the funny bone, and Schmeichel tried to play on, only to be pulled back. Lots of boos as Antonio returns...Leicester fans not seeing the funny side.
35 min: Tielemans has not done much beyond that long pass for Daka, and there’s talk he wants to leave the club. At his best, he’s a midfield general.
33 min: West Ham’s turn to have a corner, an area Leicester have struggled with. They clear this one. But concede a free kick when Maddison clatters Fornals. This one is cleared, too, though with a modicum of panic.
31 min: The corner is cleared as Fornals goes back to clear up.
30 min: Another Leicester corner, taken by Dewsbury-Hall, but it will be delayed as James Justin is down, it looks like a muscle injury after so long out with a cruciate knee ligament problem. A shame, and on comes Luke Thomas.
27 min: Blocks aplenty in the Leicester box as Bowen and Fornals have shots and crosses cleared. Then Ricardo goes down, and there’s a break in play. It’s high tempo but by no means high quality, besides that goal.
25 min: Leicester force a corner, and are coming back into this. Dewsbury-Hall takes, Fabianski flaps, and then West Ham knock behind again. The corner’s taken short, a waste, as they almost always are. Get it in the mixer, lads.
23 min: Cheers from Leicester fans as Daka is set away by a Tieleman’s quarterback pass, and though Fabianski comes out, that’s better from them. It couldn’t have been much worse. Barnes involved too, he seems key today.
21 min: Leicester are slow slow slow. West Ham are given plenty of time to get back and defend. Barnes, peripheral all game, cuts in from the left, but can’t find a teammate. Individual inspiration seems Leicester’s best route; the team’s not working right.
19 min: Cresswell is OK, and crosses the ball with his trusty left. It’s blocked but Leicester have done very little but sit back. They’re unrecognisable from the last two seasons and seem nervous, too.
18 min: The latest player down on a slippery surface is Aaron Cresswell, who manages to get up after what looked a blow to his right ankle.
17 min: West Ham fans are very loud indeed, a right old Cockney knees-up in the corner of the King Power. Their team is bossing this, too.
15 min: West Ham are pressing high up, forcing Leicester back and there’s some booing from the home fans. Not much zip from Leicester, but then again there’s no Jamie Vardy.
13 min: Leicester look shapeless and vulnerable and the West Ham fans are singing lustily of bubbles and Bowen. This is not going well for the home team at all.
Updated
11 min: Too easy for West Ham, too bad from Leicester but Bowen is a player of real class and a reminder that good players are available down the league. Hull have produced him, Andy Robertson and, well, Harry Maguire in recent years.
Goal! Leicester 0-1 West Ham (Bowen, 10)
The first real attack of the game, and a long ball from Diop is taken down, the offside trap sprung and his finish is excellent. A player very much in form takes apart a defence very much out of form.
Updated
7 min: Soyuncu’s turn to be down, after a heavy fall, and he’s got blood on his shorts so makes his way down to the tunnel to get changed.
Rick Harris gets in touch: “Interesting times. A few months ago Manchester United were being ridiculed for not appointing Antonio Conte as Solskjaer’s replacement and Brendan Rodgers was being touted as another ‘brilliant’ manager who was ‘just right’ for the Old Trafford gig.
“My money is on Ralph Hassenhutl and yesterday was a pretty good job interview. Makes the appointment of his mentor Rangnick make sense and would give United their very own Klopp / Tuchel variant.”
6 min: Brendan Rodgers is already making notes. He’s a better man than I if he is picking up any pattern whatsoever from this game. OK, he is a better man than I.
4 min: Jarrod Bowen, the scorer of the winner - via a deflection - in midweek is down, and there’s a considerable delay in play even if he looks OK to continue. There’s something of a limp and that furrows David Moyes even more than normal, which is pretty furrowed when you think of it.
2 min: Leicester begin with an attack, with Harvey Barnes to the fore, and zipping in a cross from the wing. At the other end, Soucek lopes forward and the danger is eventually cleared.
1 min: And away we go, as the players take the knee, and West Ham kick off. There’s big stakes at hand for them, and with their top-four peers all struggling.
Ok, no Zouma but football to come and a highly squeaky piece of bugling greets the players on the field at the King Power Stadium. The noise is deafening from the PA system.
You might want to catch Graeme Souness’ view of the l’affaire Zouma on Sky just there. It made for incredible TV. Sample quote: “that cat hadn’t done anything wrong.”
Updated
Zouma felt unwell in the warmup, and in comes Issa Diop, as probably should have happened against Watford on Tuesday.
Zouma’s name was booed by Foxes fans in the warmup and now it looks like he might not be playing.
Kurt Zouma stopped his warm up, had a long discussion with West Ham’s backroom staff and has walked off. Looks to have picked up an injury.
— Phil McNulty (@philmcnulty) February 13, 2022
Brendan Rodgers spoke to Sky ahead of this game after being fiercely critical of his players after the loss to Liverpool as part of a winless run of four matches.
It’s probably the first time I’ve had to be as harsh as that in all honesty. Sometimes you have to be harsh to be clear. The reality is that this season we’ve conceded too many goals. The pressing elements of our game haven’t been at the levels we’d want them to be. As a team, we haven’t defended well enough. I’ve always been honest with the players and I said that to them from the beginning. I’m not going to tell them something in six months’ time that I could tell them now.
From Paul Doyle’s mini-preview of this game for Ten Things.
When these sides met earlier in the season, Michael Antonio scored twice and celebrated by holding up a cardboard cutout of himself. West Ham could probably have done with a real-life imitator of Antonio in recent matches, since the striker has been out of form. But that is partly because of the way that opponents have tended to start playing against West Ham, sitting deep and leaving Antonio no room to run into. Brendan Rodgers’ side are unlikely to play like that at the King Power, not least because they do not have a reliable defence. So Antonio and West Ham’s nifty attacking midfielders could have yet more fun at the expense of Leicester, against whom West Ham have scored 10 times in their last three encounters.
Four changes to the Leicester team that lost to Liverpool in midweek. Youri Tielemans, Caglar Soyuncu, Harvey Barnes and Ricardo Pereira are in, Luke Thomas, Mark Albrighton and Ademola Lookman are benched. Just one West Ham change from the team that beat Watford on Tuesday. Z***a starts as widely expected, Manuel Lanzini comes in for Said Benrahma
The teams
Leicester: Schmeichel, Pereira, Soyuncu, Amartey, Justin, Ndidi, Tielemans, Dewsbury-Hall, Maddison, Barnes, Daka. Subs: Ward, Albrighton, Iheanacho, Perez, Choudhury, Vestergaard, Mendy, Thomas, Lookman
West Ham: Fabianski, Coufal, Zouma, Dawson, Cresswell, Rice, Soucek, Lanzini, Fornals, Bown, Antonio. Subs: Areola, Yarmolenko, Vlasic, Noble, Benrahma, Diop, Fredericks, Johnson, Kral
Preamble
It’s a match that continues to be overshadowed by the Kurt Zouma affair that came to light on Monday and continues to rage on, David Moyes unable to take the sting out of the situation. West Ham have a chance to continue their top-four push with those around them struggling for form and results. Talking of which, there’s Leicester, who would have begun the season looking to be in the top-four situation but begin the day in 13th, and despite having a few games in hand on their rivals. Brendan Rodgers is a manager under pressure, though ought to have plenty of residual credits. His team’s defending has been poor all season and West Ham will seek to exploit that.
Kick-off 4.30pm. Join me.
