With many of us struggling to work from home, it seems David Moyes has cracked it. With Alan Irvine and Kevin Nolan replacing their line of contact, assisted by Stuart Pearce with an earpiece in the stands as he continues to recover from Covid-19, West Ham has now defeated two successful teams in a row, scoring seven goals and conceding no goals cashes in it.
From beating Wolves 4-0 at home to beating Leicester City 3-0 at King Power Stadium to demoralize the Foxes’ 100 percent start. Each of her hard working three fronts has been rewarded with goals for her name. Michail Antonio and Pablo Fornals signed up in the first half before Jarrod Bowen killed the game in the second half. The scoreline, while accurately reflecting Leicester’s threat, was nonetheless flattering. It could have been a lot worse.
One of the many major sins of football is overthrowing Goliath one week and falling on David the next. And while Moyes wasn’t here in person, he could think of a well-executed plan and catch Brendan Rodgers’ side still basking in the glow of last week’s 5-2 win over Manchester City. West Ham’s line-up that led to their own surprise win over the Wolves included new signing Vladimir Coufal as right-back in a 5-3-2 who mimicked the hosts on one-board counters.
Rodgers threw in an offensive tweak with Ayoze Perez replacing Denis Praet, not that you noticed. James Maddison, who started on the bench last week, was not in the squad here, but because of a calf injury in training and not because of a final move in the transfer window, as rumors would suggest – although he signed a new four year at the end of August.
The expectation that Leicester would see more of the ball than the 28.3 percent they made at Etihad turned out to be true. But after 35 minutes, here was another lesson on how to do more with less. West Ham already had a 2-0 lead.
Both were simple goals, although after 14 minutes the first was beautiful in its simplicity. Antonio, fouled on the right after a free kick, immediately spread the ball towards the other flank, where it was picked up by Aaron Creswell. The ball-bearing center half, formerly known as the left-back, then whipped a deep cross over the Leicester defense to scoop a one-two from Antonio’s head in the far corner.
The second, made available by the same source, was of an agricultural nature: Fornals, who drove to the goal and passed Kasper Schmeichel with his left foot at the near post, shot a volley shot out of the cloudy sky. This gave Cresswell two assists in one half after 36 previous league games without one.
There was no resistance to this trend in the second half, though Harvey Barnes scored with a volley from Lukasz Fabianski for Leicester’s second shot of the game. Only one side threatened to improve the goals.
Antonio went straight for Schmeichel and later, when midfield blurred, Declan Rice carried the ball every 60 yards and cracked the bottom of the bar. But that’s how determined West Ham was in the background, led by Angelo Ogbonna. These missed opportunities never felt like they were being questioned.
That was, in particular, a damn charge against a team looking to be part of the top four six, and a nudge towards the statistic that five of Leicester’s 12 goals this season were penalties. It didn’t help that Jamie Vardy lifted the ball over Fabianksi when he scored his only goal in the 90th minute, but it hit the far post.
It was a situation reminiscent of West Ham’s third, a reflection of the open-body finish it took Bowen to beat Schmeichel that Fornals had achieved. And as if necessary, more salt was being rubbed into Leicester’s wounds as a series of crisp give and goings led Barnes to a consolation goal that would eventually be ruled off as an offside.
It meant they would end the game without registering a single shot on goal, and Rodgers will wonder how sluggish was the same group of players who were so clinical a week ago. He will take the two-week international break so as not to stew this result. After two wins after two losses, the only ailments Moyes has to focus on now are his own.
