It’s just not going Leicester City’s way – and relegation is getting closer and closer. The pressure on coach Ruud van Nistelrooy is likely to increase even further.
On Thursday evening, Leicester City were the guests of West Ham United and were desperate to score points, as they had the chance to reduce the gap to Wolverhampton and thus the first non-relegation place to just two points. To come straight to the point, nothing came of it.
The Foxes were harmless against the Hammers, who were not exactly walking tall despite their 1-0 win at Arsenal. Leicester were particularly inept in offense, failing to create any notable chances and, on top of that, twice looking out of their depth defensively in the first half.
Disgrace, bad luck and inability
At 1-0, it was a series of failures, bad luck and poor defending when Soucek and Bowen first made their way through on the right and Buonanotte then inadequately cleared to Cresswell. On the latter’s cross from the left, Vestergaard canceled out the offside, before Kudus was stopped by keeper Hermansen from four meters out and Soucek finally scored (21′).
In the 43rd minute, the next incident occurred, which was a mixture of slapstick and inability: on a corner from the left, Vardy tried to clear the ball but his header unfortunately ended up at Bowen’s feet. He then fooled three men and scored from an extremely acute angle – he was almost on the baseline – into the near corner. Vestergaard deflected the ball while keeper Hermansen did not look too good (43′).
With a two-goal lead, West Ham switched to administrative mode after the break and ultimately had little trouble getting the three points. The win means that the Londoners now have a comfortable 16-point cushion between themselves and the relegation zone, and can approach the upcoming home game against Newcastle United on Monday, March 10 (9 p.m.), in a relaxed frame of mind.
For Leicester, on the other hand, the air is getting thinner. The promoted team is in a much worse position than in its last relegation season and with 17 points after 26 games, the prospects are not rosy. It has been 20 years since a Premier League team with such a record has stayed up – that team was West Bromwich Albion.
Coach Ruud van Nistelrooy is also unlikely to be encouraged by the fact that the team is currently performing badly in both defense and offense. Leicester has lost 11 of its last 12 league games and has conceded 12 goals in its last four league games. And its upcoming opponents are Chelsea, Manchester United, Manchester City, Newcastle United, Brighton and Liverpool.
