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Michail Antonio stars as West Ham thumps Leicester to top EPL table

Michail Antonio stars as West Ham thumps Leicester to top EPL table

West Ham United extended their perfect start to the Premier League season as Michail Antonio became the club’s Premier League all-time top scorer with a double in their 4-1 win against 10-man Leicester City on Monday night.

West Ham took an early lead through Pablo Fornals’ first-half goal at the London Stadium before Leicester’s Ayoze Perez was sent off for a dangerous stamp on Fornals just before half-time.

Said Benrahma put West Ham two to the good after the break before Youri Tielemans got one back for Leicester.

Antonio went into the game tied with Paolo Di Canio on a joint record for West Ham in the Premier League era with both of them having 47 goals for the Hammers.

PHOTO: Courtesy

The 31-year-old went ahead of Di Canio with a brace in the closing stages as West Ham followed up last weekend’s 4-2 win at Newcastle with another four-goal thumping.

“I’m really pleased for him. I was disappointed with the way he played in the first half but he did enough to shut the manager up after what I said to him at half-time,” Moyes said of Antonio.

West Ham now sits comfortably on top of the Premier League table having won their opening two fixtures of a Premier League campaign for only the second time and the first time in over 20 years.

“It’s a super night for us. The team played really well. The sending-off changes the game a little bit we did a lot of good things,” Moyes said.

“I’ve challenged the players to find that extra few points that could have been enough to get us in the Champions League.

“I could be asking far too much but what else am I going to do? Stand here and say we want to avoid relegation!”

West Ham was the only team to beat Leicester home and away in the league last season and they maintained that hold over Brendan Rodgers’ men as the FA Cup Champions slumped to their first defeat of the new campaign having defeated Wolves 1-0 in their opener tie.

West Ham started on a high note, with successive attacks in the first 10 minutes. Containing Leicester effectively and launching counter-attacks at will, West Ham’s confident display was rewarded in the 26th minute.

An impressive move ended with Fornals finding Benrahma wide on the left before racing into the area to meet the cross with a clipped finish into the far corner from 12 yards.

Leicester suffered another setback in the 40th minute when Michael Oliver sent off Perez after consulting the pitchside monitor of the VAR to review Perez’s reckless stamp on Fornals’ ankle.

In the 56th minute, Caglar Soyuncu made an avoidable mistake after playing a woeful back-pass towards Schmeichel without looking and Antonio intercepted and then slipped the ball to the unmarked Benrahma and the Algerian smashed in his first goal at the London Stadium since signing from Brentford last season.

Tielemans stabbed home from close range after West Ham failed to clear James Maddison’s cross in the 69th minute.

But Antonio sealed the points with 10 minutes of play remaining when he took Declan Rice’s cross, held off Soyuncu, and swiveled past Schmeichel.

West Ham’s Michail Antonio celebrates with a placard of him in front of West Ham fans after becoming the club’s all-time Premier League top scorer.
PHOTO: Courtesy

After celebrating his goal by holding up a large cardboard cut-out of himself on the touchline, Antonio produced another memorable moment in the 84th minute when he cleverly flicking the ball over his head, Antonio got between two defenders before poking home from close-range to make it four for the Hammers.

Up next for West Ham is London neighbors Crystal Palace on Saturday at London Stadium while Leicester will seek to bounce back with a trip to Norwich City who are yet to score in the League this season.

 

Nathan Sialah is a journalist by profession with interest in politics, sports, cryptocurrency and human interests with 5 years experience in Radio and Digital Journalism. This has helped Sialah develop a responsible approach to any task he undertakes or any situation that he is presented with.

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