James Maddison scored the opening goal in Leicester’s victory over West Ham at London Stadium but left the field with an apparent leg injury after 25 minutes.
The 25-year-old received his call-up to Gareth Southgate’s England squad for the World Cup in Qatar earlier this week.
Maddison, who has now scored seven goals in the Premier League this season, was able to walk off the pitch and manager Brendan Rodgers confirmed his substitution was “precautionary” following some knee soreness.
Rodgers said: “He’s fine. It was just precautionary, a little soreness on the side of the knee. He hasn’t trained a lot this week. He’s OK.”
West Ham was more involved in the game after Maddison’s departure but Craig Dawson gave away a penalty which was well saved by Lukasz Fabianski from Youri Tielemans’ low drive.
But Harvey Barnes finished off a lovely counter-attacking move when he slotted past Fabianksi to seal a third consecutive away win for the Foxes.
Having won six games at home in the Premier League West Ham has now lost their last two on the spin at London Stadium, suffering defeat last weekend after conceding a last-minute goal to Crystal Palace.
Both West Ham and Leicester came into the game completely evenly matched with four wins, two draws and eight losses.
Leicester, who have not conceded a goal in their last three away wins, got off to a fast start having beaten Newport in the Carabao Cup earlier this week.
Barnes drove forward and did well to keep the ball in play, his cut-back to Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall shifted along to Patson Daka, who miscued his kick but which turned into the perfect tee-up for Maddison to hammer it into the roof of the net from 10 yards.
That strike took Maddison (40) past Riyad Mahrez (39) in Leicester’s leading Premier League goalscorers, behind only forward Jamie Vardy (134).
The visitors had a terrific effort from range when Daniel Amartey ambled through the middle of the pitch and hit a rocket from 20 yards out, forcing a big save from Fabianski before Tielemans’ penalty miss.
The second half brought wholesale changes for Brendan Rodgers’ side as they looked to see the game off and substitute Ayoze Perez set up Barnes, who has scored in all five of Leicester’s victories this season, to slide home.
The Foxes defended resolutely and were ultimately more efficient with their chances, and have now won four of their last five Premier League games after winning just one of their first 10 this season.
Following their surprise loss to Blackburn on penalties in the Carabao Cup, West Ham started the game tentatively and were forced into an early substitution when Kurt Zouma, who had pulled up in the warm-up but still started, was unable to continue and was replaced by Nayef Aguerd, making his Premier League debut.
Following Maddison’s departure, West Ham improved as Jarrod Bowen saw his shot from range deflected over the bar and Lucas Paqueta headed wide after hammering a shot over from outside the area.
Tomas Soucek had the ball in the back of the net from Bowen’s cut-back but it was overruled for an offside.
The Hammers were just finding their feet in the game when referee Jarred Gillett was advised to go to the monitor after Dawson clattered into Daka, as the Zambian tried to shift the ball onto his left foot.
But Tielemans’ resulting penalty was poor and well saved by Fabianski to keep the difference to one.
The Hammers had 10 attempts to Leicester’s four in the second half, with one coming when Declan Rice made a decisive run from his own half and played wide to Thilo Kehrer, who sent a teasing ball across the six-yard box but Gianluca Scamacca couldn’t finish the move.
West Ham wasn’t clinical enough with the chances they had and that, coupled with Leicester’s superb defensive performance, culminating in David Moyes’ side’s ninth loss of the season before the Premier League breaks for the World Cup.
source – BBC
