WHUFC vs Leicester -- April 20th, 2019

morning all,

little late, still making me coffee... we're 2 minutes in and were threatening outside the Foxes are but the ball's gone out for a throw and now an Arnautovic (oh yes, he's feeling better) shot goes inches wide.

Leicester have played well of late and then tripped up against the Toon last week.

We've been pretty piss poor and then kinda stepped it up to lose gallantly against Man Utd last weekend...

so an interesting fixture no doubt.


5.24 minutes gone and it's all West Ham... camped as we seem to be outside the Foxes area and now a deflected shot gives us a corner...

So who's actually playing for us this weekend?

Leicester win a corner btw....


1 Fabianski
5 Zabaleta
4 Balbuena
21 Ogbonna
26 Masuaku
41 Rice
30 Antonio
16 Noble
11 Snodgrass
8 Felipe Anderson
7 Arnautovic

so it appears Lanzini didn't shake off his worrying groin...

13 Adrián
14 Obiang
19 Wilshere
23 Diop
24 Fredericks
27 Pérez
45 Diangana

looks like Wilshere is sliding firmly into the couple of subs bench appearances a season slot that will soon be vacated by Carroll...

not sure Diop deserves to sit on the bench. Yes, Ogbonna put in a good display last week, but Diop is the more consistently decent of the two.

Happy birthday Grady, be nice to see you come off the bench and bag a birthday brace or some such.

couple of sores from Leicester but we're on the march again...

don't forget, Man Are scored against the run of play last week, so it's not all easy-peasy you know...

Antonio goes down for the 2nd time in as many minutes... this time he's no getting up...

he's grimacing and holding his shoulder

but after everyone gets a nice refreshing drink, it looks like he's going to soldier on... yes, I too have noticed how many military analogies have crept into this morning's posting... I'll see if I can ratchet down the tension with some more civilian based similes...

ooh... Antonio wins a corner...

that was a good corner that Ogbonna just couldn't get the proper contact on...

Watford are winning their game so it looks - as if there was any doubt - that the lofty heights of 7th and 8th are out of our reach this year.

Leicester hit a hopelessly long ball way out to the corner and we get a goal kick.

be nice for birthday boy Fabianski to keep a clean sheet as our record in the department is poor this year despite his goalkeeping heroics... imagine where we'd be without him... on second thoughts, don't.


free kick that Anderson and Snoddy are pretending will be brilliant.

instead it flies way out to the wing and Arnie can only scuttle after it and loft a high hopeless ball out of play.

20 minutes gone. We've been on top, pretty untroubled and doing better than usual...

need a bit of end product to seal the deal and Antonio needs to stop getting clattered to the ground.

Leicester go on the attack but it's cut out well... second time Fabianski has to make a diving save.

Leicester are a team that need to be put to bed otherwise they'll get somehting somehow...

another free kick to us - good as the passing was getting cut out too frequently by the Foxes...

it goes nowhere... but we still have possession.

half way through the half... not too shabby thus far.

Antonio is all over the place... left wing, right wing, up front.... doing all the things you'd be expecting an Anderson and Arnautovic to be doing.

We have another corner. Snoddy hoofs it right into the middle of the 6 yard box but it meets a Leicester head and turns into a Leicester attack

and there's Anotion again, forcing a save by Peter Schmeichel's kid.

half hour gone - nothing on th scoreboard except two big zeroes...

weak shot straight at the keeper - but Leicester will score eventually if we don't put this game to bed.

Be nice if someone would help Anotion out a little bit. He's going to get tired and then injured...

oooh.. that was more like it...

poor Noble pass concedes possession to Leicester but then we nick it back off then and Anderson's too casual side foot shot into the 6 yard area almost finds, you guessed it, Antonio but the ball gets bundled out wide...

Now Leicester have a corner.

We have to realize that no other team plays like us, they're not going to just lay down and let us win because it would be a nice thing to do.
We're going to have to go and actually do it ourselves.

Antonio (again) a high hopefully shot or cross... either way it's out for a goal kick

Even a win for us and every team above us losing would only cement us in 11th place...

and Watford are leading Huddersfield so they'll be well clear in 7th place by then of day unless Wolves step up and beat Brightno as I'm hoping they do - to give Cardiff a slight hope of avoiding the drop.

I was just about to type 'and let's go se what antonio is up to' but before I can even do that... he rises in the box and heads the ball into the bottom corner of the net.

It was a noble cross (finding his man for once)

but we have the lead...

Let's see who rises to the challenge now...

can we hold on or go for greater glory... will the Foxes rake this laying down?

making a slight adjustment to the team sheet to reflect the performance...

Fabianski

a couple of defenders...

Antonio




and as I'm typing that... antonio is muscling his way through three Leicester players just to prove the point.

If anderson put in half the effort Antonio does, he, and we, would be world beaters.

Here's the BBC version of the goal:

GOAL - West Ham 1-0 Leicester
Michail Antonio
Great cross. Great header. West Ham lead.

Leicester initially do well to prevent the cross coming in from the left but West Ham go again and slip Mark Noble into space.

It's a delicious cross in from the Hammers captain and Michail Antonio has got himself a mis-match against the much smaller Ben Chilwell in the area.

Bam. Antonio rises and plants a firm header in the bottom right beyond Kasper Schmeichel. A deserved opener for the hosts.



watching it again on replay it was about as inch perfect a cross and header as you're likely to see.

wait... what the fupp...

'bonus coverage' - the game just switches to the Wolves Birghton game...

I guess someone heard the half time whistle go... but the 'bonus' lasts for approximately 20 seconds before that game also blows the half time... you gotta love american telly for trying to make things interesting even the they're clearly not...

so... 45 minutes away from a decent home victory.

will anyone step up to help out Antonio's one man band?

players heading out for the 2nd halves... U.S. telly manfully playing the multi-cam images as if it's all to play for.

the only result today that has any bearing on anything is the Brighton game and even if they lose they still have a game in hand over Cardiff - who play Liverpool tomorrow... so that's hardly epic drama in the making.

Leicester kick off the 2nd half... COYI!!!!

Leicester making all the effort us far. Corner to them.

does Anderson not see the results of the effort that Antonio puts in? Anderson barely points a toe in the direction of a player to 'try' to make a tackle... it's pretty piss poor effort from him as usual. He seems to have no interest in going any direction but forward but then only if he's left alone to demonstrate his skills without the interference of other players...

he needs a good kick up the Arsenal in the off season.

Snodgrass seems very beamed to have been booked for stamping on a Leicester player's foot...

Antonio's spirit wins us a corner.

I forgot who manages Leicester... be nice to put a juicy 'L' in the Brendan Rogers resume...

Anderson waits outside the area for his chance at a training ground corner...

The ball doesn't quite reach him at the proper height so instead of moving for it he ducks and weakly heads th ball... Leicester win possession... race up the park with the help of a deflection from the Ref... but their foremost player is flagged offside and balloons his shot wide of the goal.

So in a minute, Antonio wins a corner just out of hard work... and anderson almost concedes a goal out of a lack of effort...

ten minutes of half number two have ticked by... it's pretty much all Leicester...

they dance through the defense but Balbuena puts it out for a corner...

ooh lordy... Anderon actually puts in a shoulder charge to put the ball out for another corner