Leicester City Previews: ‘Nothing but the Huth’ – Can David Moyes avoid an unwanted 12-year record?
West Ham vs Leicester City
24/11/17
Kick off 8:00pm
Preview:
The first game of the weekend for footballing fans comes from the London Stadium, as David Moyes takes charge of his first home game against Claude Puel’s Leicester City.
I love the fact our game is on Sky Sports, as it means I can catch up on the game later this evening. However, that brings me to my negative point; I won’t be able to watch the game tonight, which is typical.
I’m really hoping that whilst i’m working this evening and don’t have my phone on me, we try and put the game to bed as early as possible and not do what we always tend to do; make lives hard for ourselves at every possible opportunity and put the travelling fans through the mill and back.
Life as a football fan isn’t good for your health I swear!
Stats:
Friday night games don’t favour Leicester. We are yet to win a Premier League game on a Friday, drawing one and losing three.
However a bit of good news especially for the neutral viewer, is that Leicester’s four previous Friday matches have seen both sides score, producing a total of 15 goals (average of 3.8 goals per game).
If there’s a time to break that duck of Friday night defeats, it’d be tonight against a struggling Hammers side.
West Ham have lost five of their last six against the Foxes, and haven’t beaten the away side since their 2-0 victory in 2014.
Whereas Leicester are looking for their third successive away victory against West Ham,  having recorded only one away win at West Ham in 28 previous attempts prior to the two victories.
Furthermore, West Ham could lose three successive Premier League home games for the first time since August 2015, when they still played at the Boleyn Ground. They already have the worst defensive record in the league, which doesn’t bode well against a Leicester side who thrive on counter-attacking football.
More negativity for Hammers fans (sorry), is that if West Ham don’t win tonight, then David Moyes will equal a 12-year old record set by Mick McCarthy by failing to win 11 home games in a calendar year…no pressure, David!
Looking at the overall record, it’s the home side who have marginally the better record. West Ham have beaten Leicester 51 times, drawing 30 and losing 47.
The first game between the two sides wasn’t exactly what you’d call exciting or memorable.
A 0-0 draw on the 8th November 1919 back in the old Division Two, meant that the first goal to be scored between these two sides, funnily enough, came only a week later.
15th November 1919, West Ham won by a goal to nil, with Frank Burton scoring the winner.
Prediction:
If last week is anything to go by, then West Ham won’t be looking forward to the visit of us.
The pace of Jamie Vardy and Demarai Gray, along with the trickery of Riyad Mahrez, will frighten the life out of an already-frail defensive backline, which just so happens to lack pace.
West Ham looked all over the shop against Watford. On the other hand, some would argue that going forward they did create enough chances to actually take something from Vicarage Road.
In reality, David Moyes hadn’t had long enough to really stamp his authority on to proceedings, and so was only picking up where Slavin Bilic left off.
From a Leicester point of view, wouldn’t it just be typical that West Ham were to win tonight? I hear you, Foxes fans. Yet, i’m confident tonight, I really am.
I think our quality going forward will be too much and even with Moyes having time to try and sort things out, the defensive side to West Ham’s game is non-existent currently and that won’t be a quick fix.
I fancy Jamie Vardy to have a field day against Winston Reid, who has recently returned from International Duty, so there’s a chance he won’t be 100% fitness-wise.
Vardy to score in quite an open game, which will only suit the away side, and that’s why I believe we’ll be returning to the East Midlands with all three points.