West Ham 4-1 Leicester City
Michail Antonio scored twice to become West Ham’s top goalscorer in the Premier League as David Moyes’ side demolished ten-man Leicester City 4-1.
First half
The first Monday night fixture of the season gave us the opportunity to see two teams who will be striving for European football go head to head.
West Ham welcomed Leicester to a noisy Olympic Stadium and the hosts never let Leicester settle, harrying them in possession.
Despite the Foxes having the majority of the ball, it was the Hammers who looked more deadly on the counter attack.
A sweeping move saw Pablo Fornals finish stylishly from Said Benrahma’s cross and put West Ham ahead just before the half-hour minute mark.
West Ham didn’t take their foot off the gas and kept pushing for a second. High pressing and intensity saw the Hammers force Ayoze Perez into taking a poor first touch and dangerously trying to win the ball back from Fornals.
He caught Fornals high on the ankle and received his marching orders after a VAR check from Michael Oliver.
Second half
Leicester were on the back foot with 11 men on the field and the red card just exacerbated things as they then spent most of their second half chasing shadows.
A huge error from defender Caglar Soyuncu led to a second West Ham goal in the 56th minute; the Turk played a blind pass to Antonio, who laid the ball on a plate for Benrahma to score.
Against the run of play, Youri Tielemans halved the deficit but it just gave West Ham the onus to raise the tempo again and put the game to bed.
West Ham’s new number nine, Michail Antonio, became the clubs top goalscorer in the Premier League with a brilliant brace, scoring his 48th and 49th goal in the competition.
The right back turned striker held off Soyuncu and turned sharply to finish past Kasper Schmeichel.
He then grabbed his second six minutes from time, flicking the ball into his path and stabbing the ball into the net.
What does it mean?
West Ham enjoyed a great night at the London Stadium as they went top of the table. They host Crystal Palace next weekend.
Leicester were missing a whole host of defenders, new signing Jannik Vestergaard is the latest to fall victim to injury.
Brendan Rodgers’ side were not at the races all evening and next face a trip to Carrow Road to play Norwich.
