Key events
11 min: West Ham are getting plenty of joy down the right. Bowen cuts in from the flank and aims a low curler towards the far stick. Hermansen tips around for West Ham’s first corner of the game. Nothing comes of the set piece. Good game, this.
9 min: Coufal finds a bit of space down the right and crosses for Kudus, who heads over from six yards. Or did Justin get there first to deflect out for a corner? Think so, yes. But the referee doesn’t. West Ham furious.
8 min: Kristiansen, tucked tight on the left touchline, rolls a pass infield and Vardy’s away again! Vardy tries to round the keeper on the left, then dinks, the ball deflected by Fabianski into the side netting. Nothing comes of the resulting corner.
7 min: Mavropanos tries to redeem himself by battling down the inside-right channel but his pass towards Coufal is blocked. West Ham come again, though, Bowen seemingly upended to the right of the D. But there’s no whistle, so Soucek latches onto the loose ball and blazes over wildly.
5 min: VAR breaking the space-time continuum there. But 1 minute and 39 seconds it is.
GOAL! Leicester 1-0 West Ham (Vardy 2)
The goal stands! Vardy goes racing off to celebrate, belatedly, and the King Power roars! Not a bad start to the Van Nistelrooy era, huh?
3 min: … but VAR are checking it, because Mavropanos might have been playing Vardy onside. This is going to be very tight. In fact, the naked eye suggests this goal will stand. But we await the rulers.
2 min: So, that 0-0 draw … Vardy bursts down the inside-left channel. He’s clear. He reaches the box, opens his body, and slots across Fabianski and into the bottom-right corner. But the flag immediately goes up. Offside.
West Ham get the ball rolling. Fabianski launches it long and his team-mates quickly lose it. “As these two clubs conceded nine between them at the weekend, let’s hope that Ruud’s presence inspires more goals, goals, goals,” writes Justin Kavanagh. “There, I’ve gone and jinxed it. Now, what price are they offering for a 0-0 draw?”
The teams are out! Leicester in blue, West Ham in claret. The managers embrace warmly on an otherwise chilly evening. We’ll be off in a couple of minutes.
Julen Lopetegui talks to Amazon. “We choose this line-up thinking they are ready to face this challenge … Niclas Füllkrug is on the bench because he can play a few minutes … we are happy because he is back, but we have to go step by step … consistency is always important … we know we face a strong team at home with a new coach … a big challenge … we have to be our best version … we have to focus on ourselves … we are aware Leicester are a good team.”
Ruud van Nistelrooy speaks to Amazon Prime. “It’s been a bit hectic! … long days, a lot needs to happen … get to know each other as much as possible … right from the first conversation I have had with the owner, it is very positive … the club, players and facilities … it’s amazing … everything at the highest level … Enzo [Maresca] is a good friend of mine, that helped a lot to move forward [and take the job] … we will press at the right moments … then go forward … good pressure and counter attacks … the goal is staying in the Premier League … we can achieve that.”
Ruud van Nistelrooy’s first Leicester starting XI sees four changes to the side sent out to face heavy defeat at Brentford. Jannik Vestergaard, Victor Kristiansen, Bilal El Khannouss and Kasey McAteer take the places of Wout Faes, Caleb Okoli, Luke Thomas and Jordan Ayew, all of whom drop to the bench. Harry Winks is still recovering from a groin problem.
Julen Lopetegui makes five changes after the 5-2 debacle against Arsenal. Back in: Vladimír Coufal, Konstantinos Mavropanos, Edson Álvarez, Danny Ings and, returning from his five-game ban for that meltdown at Spurs, Mohammed Kudus. Crysencio Summerville, Michail Antonio, Lucas Paquetá and Emerson Palmieri drop to the bench, while Jean-Clair Todibo is out injured.
The teams
Leicester City: Hermansen, Justin, Vestergaard, Coady, Kristiansen, Ndidi, Soumare, El Khannouss, Buonanotte, McAteer, Vardy.
Subs: Ward, Faes, Okoli, Thomas, Skipp, Mavididi, De Cordova-Reid, Ayew, Daka.
West Ham United: Fabianski, Wan-Bissaka, Mavropanos, Kilman, Coufal, Alvarez, Soucek, Soler, Kudus, Bowen, Ings.
Subs: Foderingham, Summerville, Antonio, Paqueta, Fullkrug, Guilherme, Rodriguez, Emerson, Casey.
Referee: Josh Smith
VAR: Neil Davies
Preamble
Leicester fans are full of hope thanks to their new manager Ruud van Nistelrooy; West Ham supporters are rapidly losing patience with their new guy Julen Lopetegui. Either way, though, these teams go into tonight’s fixture off the back of a skelping, Leicester losing 4-1 at Brentford last weekend, the Hammers shipping five in 45 minutes at home to Arsenal. A bounceback victory would mean so much. Kick-off is at 8.15pm GMT. It’s on!
