West Ham 2-2 Leicester City
by Paul Donovan
at London Stadium 

HONOURS finished even in this hard-fought contest between West Ham United and Leicester City, though home manager Manuel Pellegrini thought his side were again denied the points by poor refereeing decisions.

“We have now lost five points in two big games with such big mistakes,” said Pellegrini, referring to the game last week against Man United and to a Lucas Perez goal wrongly disallowed for offside.

West Ham dominated for long spells in this match, twice going in front but two lapses of concentration cost them dear.

West Ham’s main attacking threat Michail Antonio was rewarded in the 37th minute when he headed home a cross in from Mark Noble.

But the ever-present threat of a counter-attack from Leicester came to fruition 20 minutes into the second half, when Harry Maguire put Ben Chilwell away down the left. His cross saw Jamie Vardy get ahead of Fabian Balbuena to slot home.

West Ham thought they were home and dry when a Pedro Obiang shot from outside the area came back off a post into the path of substitute Lucas Perez, who duly converted.

Then came the controversy, when Perez, put through by Obiang, rounded the keeper to score his second. The linesman wrongly waved for offside.

Leicester, though, weren’t done, with Youri Tielemans putting substitute Harvey Barnes through in the 92nd minute to drive home the equaliser.

Leicester manager Brendan Rodgers acknowledged that a good goal had been disallowed and quipped that it’s lucky we don’t have VAR.

“It was a good point for us in the end,” said Rodgers, who praised Barnes for taking his chance and “adapting well” to the situation.