West Ham 2 City 2
Report by Kate Thompson
In the bright sunshine, it sometimes looked as if the players were already thinking ahead to their summer holidays and this was a rather disappointing match. There were two changes from the defeat against Newcastle, with Evans replacing Morgan, who wasn’t even on the bench, and the fit-again Albrighton coming in for Barnes. I would rather have seen Gray dropped for Albrighton; he was a bit better in this match, albeit in parts as ever.
It was a fairly even match at first, although West Ham seemed to want to win more and it was no surprise when Antonio, who had been making a nuisance of himself, scored a simple headed goal. For once Ricardo was left for dead and the cross from Noble was met too easily for the visiting Leicester fans.
This was how the score stayed well into the second half, until in the 67th minute Ben Chilwell crossed to Vardy, who somehow scored with the outside of his foot. Another excellent goal from Vardy, who now overtakes Gary Lineker in the Leicester City all-time scorers chart. Funny, this wasn’t mentioned on ‘Match of the day’!
At this point we would have settled for a point, until a rather fortunate second goal for West Ham. Obiang hit the right-hand post with a rasping drive and Schmeichel was unlucky to see another substitute, Lucas, score an easy tap-in.
In the 64th minute, Albrighton was substituted for Harvey Barnes, a change that Rodgers had hinted at, and he made a difference. The other two substitutions were Iheanacho for Gray in the 84th minute and Mendy for Tielemans in the fifth minute of time added on at the end of the game.
Just when we thought we would lose again, a sublime pass from Tielemans put Barnes through on goal and he scored his first in the Premier League, in the second minute of added time.
It may have been more than we deserved but it meant the City fans generally went home happy. Leicester certainly played better in the second half, although they rode their luck, especially when a second goal from Lucas was ruled offside – it was later shown that this was incorrect.
Perhaps the defeat last week affected the players somewhat because too many of them were below par. The usually dependable Ricardo was caught napping a few times and even Tielemans was below the excellent level we have seen; having said that, when it mattered (the pass for the second equaliser) he still shone.
We have dropped to 8th in the table and I can’t say I am too disappointed. Nice as it would be to have another European adventure, I think we might struggle like Burnley this season.
West Ham: Fabianski, Zabaleta, Balbuena, Ogbonna, Masuaku, Rice, Antonio, Noble, Snodgrass, Felipe Anderson, Arnautovic. Subs: Adrian, Obiang, Wilshere, Diop, Fredericks, Lucas Perez, Diangana.
Leicester: Schmeichel, Ricardo Pereira, Evans, Maguire, Chilwell, Albrighton, Ndidi, Tielemans, Gray, Maddison, Vardy. Subs: Soyuncu, Iheanacho, Ward, Barnes, Okazaki, Mendy, Fuchs.
The views expressed in this report are the opinions of the Trust member nominated to file the report only and do not represent the views of the Foxes Trust organisation