Van Nistelrooy starts Leicester reign with win over West Ham

Ruud van Nistelrooy made an immediate impression in his first match as Leicester City manager as the Foxes beat West Ham United 3-1 at King Power Stadium.

Jamie Vardy needed less than two minutes to fire Leicester ahead, with his opener initially ruled out for offside before a VAR review confirmed that the goal should be awarded.

West Ham then started to dominate but could not take their chances, hitting the woodwork through Danny Ings before Tomas Soucek’s foul on Mads Hermansen led to a second-half equaliser being disallowed.

Having teed up Vardy’s opener, Bilal El Khannouss extended Leicester’s advantage with a cool finish just after the hour mark, before substitute Patson Daka added a third in the 90th minute.

Substitute Niclas Fullkrug netted a stoppage-time consolation for West Ham, but they remain 14th in the table.

Leicester’s first win in six, meanwhile, sees them climb to 15th, four points clear of the relegation zone.

How the match unfolded

The Van Nistelrooy era had immediate lift-off when El Khannouss found Vardy, who was played onside by Konstantinos Mavropanos before he calmly rolled into the bottom-right corner.

West Ham could have responded before the half-hour mark as Ings’ header cannoned against Hermansen’s right-hand post, while Soucek nodded narrowly wide.

Julen Lopetegui’s side thought they had levelled prior to the hour, but Soucek had fouled Hermansen when challenging for Crysencio Summerville’s hopeful hook as the ball was bundled over the goalline.

That incident proved pivotal moments later when El Khannouss steered into the bottom corner, before Daka thrashed home a third to make sure of Leicester’s victory.

There was still time for a consolation goal, however, as Summerville flicked on Jarrod Bowen’s corner for Fullkrug – on his return from injury – to poke home.

Van Nistelrooy gives Leicester reason to believe

Van Nistelrooy impressed his new employers with two victories over them as Manchester United’s interim manager recently, enjoying a four-match unbeaten run before Ruben Amorim’s arrival at Old Trafford.

Former Foxes boss Enzo Maresca – now of Chelsea – encouraged his friend and old team-mate to make the move after his United spell, though the differences in their two styles was notable from the off on Tuesday.

Van Nistelrooy’s front-footed aggression was clear to see immediately as Vardy profited from Mavropanos’s slack positioning to score, the striker also being denied a second goal by Lukasz Fabianski soon afterwards.

Leicester were far from convincing in defence at times, with Hermansen required on numerous occasions, though their counter-attacking prowess proved too much for West Ham.

Facundo Buonanotte was a persistent problem for the visitors, too, though he was adjudged offside in the build-up by the VAR when Bobby De Cordova-Reid saw a rebounded finish chalked off at 2-0.

Yet there would be no denying Daka as the Leicester substitute was set free by Victor Kristiansen’s long ball before dropping his shoulder and hammering past Fabianski.

Van Nistelrooy will be keen to work on those attacking positives, while offering further protection to Hermansen’s goal, ahead of their home match with Brighton & Hove Albion on Sunday.

Profligate punishment for Hammers

West Ham continue to provide hope and frustration in equal measure, mixing eye-catching wins over Man Utd and Newcastle United with chastening defeats against Tottenham Hotspur, Nottingham Forest and Arsenal in their previous seven matches.

Vardy twice escaped Lopetegui’s high line early on and set the tone for another worrying showing.

Captain Bowen aimed to drag his side back into it, twice drawing fine stops from Hermansen either side of setting up a gilt-edged headed chance for Ings.

Mohammed Kudus’s delivery from the other wing teed up a glorious Soucek opportunity, before Bowen’s first-time effort from Vladimir Coufal’s cross was again parried well by Hermansen.

Substitute Summerville almost created a leveller after his half-time introduction, but was thwarted by Soucek’s foul on Hermansen, then the former Leeds United winger saw an effort cleared off the line by Conor Coady.

That painted a familiar and frustrating story for West Ham, as their failure to take their chances came back to haunt them late on.

Their misfiring attack simply must improve before hosting Wolverhampton Wanderers on Monday, with Lopetegui needing a result against his former club.

Club reports

Leicester report | West Ham report

What the managers said

Ruud van Nistelrooy: “In the end you look at the result and the three points, in the position that we are in, it’s vital. With the other fixtures of this round we knew it was a big one for us. The result is what matters but I have also seen the game and West Ham were dominant. I think our fighting spirit got us through the game and we were effective in scoring. A great night.

Julen Lopetegui: “It is hard for the boys – they deserve much more, the fans, it is a hard day for us. The second half, after the second goal, we started losing a bit. When you are losing the match, sometimes you don’t choose well.

“Until then I had the feeling we could draw the match but we didn’t score and we risked a lot in the last minute and they scored the third goal. In the end, we didn’t score the many chances we had.”

Next Premier League fixtures

Key facts

West Ham had 31 shots in this match, their highest tally on record (since 2005/06) in a single Premier League fixture. It is also the most shots by a losing away team in a Premier League match since November 2010 (Chelsea, 32 v Birmingham City).

Leicester have kept only one clean sheet in their last 20 home Premier League matches, their last shutout was a 1-0 win against AFC Bournemouth in October this year.

West Ham’s defeat at King Power Stadium was the Hammers’ first loss in 13 matches against promoted sides, having won 10 and drawn two of the previous 12 since a 1-0 loss at Nottingham Forest in August 2022.

Aged 20 years and 207 days, Bilal El Khannouss became the youngest player to both score and assist a goal in a Premier League match for Leicester since Emile Heskey in May 1998 (20y 119d – also v West Ham).

Having won three of their first five Premier League away matches against Leicester (D1 L1), West Ham have won only two of their last 11 such visits (D4 L6).