Next up… West Ham! Preview By Simon Mack

West Ham United vs Leicester City

28^th December 2019 19:30

London Stadium

On the back of a trio of disappointing performances in the league Leicester City’s festive program continues without pause for breath on Saturday evening with a trip to London to face West Ham.

For the hammers this could be a good time to face the foxes given recent results as the side from East London have little to boast about from their recent Premier League results either. Last out on Boxing Day the irons were defeated 2-1 in a cross London trip to Selhurst Park to play Crystal Palace and prior to that the hammers chalked up their only league win in the last 4 with a 1-0 victory on the road to Southampton. Two further defeats occupy West Ham’s December to date losing 3-1 at home to Arsenal and 2-0 away to Wolves.

The hammers lie 17^th in the Premier League table going into to this one just 1 point clear of the relegation places and with a negative goal difference of -10 and 5 wins from their 18 league games this season West Ham’s manager Manuel Pellegrini will be hoping that Leicester continue their lull to avoid the growing pressure on his own tenure as the irons gaffer.

For West Ham the London Stadium despite being their home has been somewhat of a ‘poison cauldron’ for them having picked up just 1 point from the possible last 15 and having gained the least amount of points at home than any other team in the league. Another unwanted stat for the hosts on Saturday will be their record of squandering the lead in games which is also the worst of any team in the league.

The hammers have some goalkeeping woes amongst their injury troubles currently with both Lukasz Fabianski and David Martin both needing to pass a fitness test to be available. Jack Wilshere continues his eternal physio table residence with groin trouble whilst Winston Reid is another laid up without a return date. Full back Aaron Cresswell is suspended having accrued the mandatory 5 yellow cards however attacking Argentine Manuel Lanzini has been declared fit and ready to play and could well feature.

For the foxes Brendan Rodgers has no new injury issues to overcome but in the face of 2 resounding defeats to their main rivals in the top 3 he will have other dilemmas on his mind. James Maddison looked very tired in the Boxing Day beating by Liverpool and seemed in need of a rest and Rodgers himself has alluded to rotating during the congested festive fixture program and Jamie Vardy may well be on his mind for a break too.

One area of concern for many city fans is the left side of the park and how both Manchester City and Liverpool plundered this weakness in the foxes armoury without contest during both recent matches. Ben Chilwell was roasted by Riyad Mahrez throughout the away defeat at the Etihad and despite the obvious chink in the Leicester defences no amendment was made to the team’s system. Again on Boxing Day night at King Power Stadium Trent Alexander Arnold was devastating in his exploitation of the foxes weakness along this side of the park, and without heaping all the criticism on Chilwell for the failings in the match against Liverpool James Maddison was deployed in front of the city and England full back and played ‘in to out’ so almost all of what was thrown down the Liverpool right was all on Chilwell and it was clearly too much to handle on the night. The Saturday previous it was Harvey Barnes offering the protection to Chilwell at left back yet for some reason the Leicester full back was repetitively charmed into a more central role by the sky blues overloading of the Leicester final 3^rd and Mahrez feasted in a manner rarely seen from the Algerian since he departed the midlands. This area seems to be an identified soft spot that opposing managers are latching onto and you’d hope to see some changes against the hammers to nullify this ‘open door’ to the city red zone.

That aside Rodger’s options for change are limited without reducing the high level of performance both he and the fans have enjoyed watching so far this season. Perez has been in and out of the team and Demari Gray’s most effective performances in the league have been all as an impact substitute coming into games in the final 30 minutes. Kelechi Iheanacho had a purple patch of a couple of games then was hauled off early on against Norwich and has not been seen since and Hamza Choudhury’s opportunities have dwindled as Rodger’s has largely opted for a solo holding midfielder in the guise of Wilfred Ndidi.

Whilst city’s fortunes have taken a hugely positive turn to date this season having set out on their campaign with European football on their minds it’s been much better than that to date but just lately phrases like ‘reality check’ have been used to describe the foxes performances. The fact remains that Leicester City are a top 4 team and this game provides an opportunity to cement that status and reinforce it again with another very winnable match against Newcastle United on New Years Day.

West Ham possible line up:

Roberto, Fredericks, Diop, Ogbonna, Masuaku, Snodgrass, Noble, Rice, Lanzini, Antonio, Haller

Leicester possible line up:

Schmeichel, Ricardo, Evans, Soyuncu, Chilwell, Ndidi, Perez, Praet, Tielemans, Albrighton, Iheanacho