London, Feb 28 (IANS) West Ham United made it back-to-back Premier League wins by seeing off struggling Leicester City 2-0 at the London Stadium on Friday (lST).
With a win West Ham leapfrog Everton into 15th, level on points with Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United. Leicester, on the back of a fourth straight league defeat, are in 19th, five points from safety.
Birthday boy Tomas Soucek scored his 38th goal for the Club to put the Irons ahead on 21 minutes at London Stadium. Of those 38, an incredible 28 have now come in wins, eight in draws and just two in defeats.
It was also the 16th time the Czech international had scored a match-winner since he arrived in east London a little over five years ago. As he turns 30, Soucek remains a hugely important player for the Hammers.
It was captain Jarrod Bowen who forced his team’s second goal two minutes before half-time, as his hard work forced Jannik Vestergaard to put through his own net.
Graham Potter’s side continued to dominate proceedings against Ruud van Nistelrooy’s Foxes and, when referee Anthony Taylor blew for full-time, were able to celebrate back-to-back wins and clean sheets for the first time this season.
“Feels good. It’s not easy. The turnaround from the Arsenal game was not that long. Two efforts in five days is big for us. Two clean sheets, six points, delighted,” Potter said.
Leicester have lost 11 of their last 12 Premier League matches (W1), while in his 14 games in charge, Ruud Van Nistelrooy has picked up just seven points, three fewer than previous Foxes boss Steve Cooper managed this season (10 in 12 matches).
The goals you concede are easy goals. It’s a reflection of how we played in the first half. If you see the difference in the first and the second half, how we as a team moved forward to press the opponent, play with urgency after winning duels, in the first half we were waiting way too much. We have to put the opponent under pressure in the right way,” Leicester coach Nistelrooy said.
–IANS
bc/
