New Telegraph

EPL: W’Ham end Leicester’s 100% start, Saints bag Baggies 2-0

 

West Ham picked up where they left off against Wolves last weekend with another impressive display to end Leicester’s 100% winning start to the season.
Boss David Moyes was again absent from the touchline as he continues to recover from coronavirus, but as in last weekend’s 4-0 victory, it did not hamper the Hammers, who offered an excellent balance of graft and guile, reports the BBC.
Ruthless on the break, they did a similar job on Leicester to the one the Foxes did in their brilliant 5-2 win at Manchester City seven days prior.
Michail Antonio scored the first, heading in at the back post from Aaron Cresswell’s pinpoint cross from deep after the striker had himself found his team-mate with a quickly-taken free-kick.
Cresswell also assisted the second, but the credit was due more to a wonderful first touch and calm finish from Pablo Fornals, than the defender’s long ball forward.
But for a solid block from Caglar Soyuncu to repel a Jarrod Bowen shot, and a sliding Jonny Evans intervention to stop the ball finding an unmarked and well-placed Antonio, the Foxes would have been further behind before half-time.
In the second half, the brilliant Declan Rice struck the crossbar with a shot from inside the box following a driving run from deep before Bowen sealed the win with a neat finish after collecting a through-ball from Fornals.
For all their possession and territory, Leicester failed to produce a single shot on target, with their misery compounded when Jamie Vardy was flagged offside to rule out a Harvey Barnes finish in added time.
City remain second in the table, but could lose that spot with Liverpool still to play this weekend, while West Ham are up to eighth.
And Southampton won for the second consecutive game in the Premier League with a comfortable victory over West Bromwich Albion.
The Saints had lost their first two league fixtures of the season but got off the mark with a win at Burnley and built on that with a dominant display on Sunday, with a neat Moussa Djenepo goal and Oriol Romeu’s superb strike sealing the points.
Djenepo’s opener just before half-time, a clinical finish into the bottom corner, was just reward for an excellent first-half display in which only a string of fine saves by Sam Johnstone prevented Southampton from taking the lead earlier.
Johnstone kept out Ryan Bertrand’s curling effort before reacting quickly to prevent Semi Ajayi from diverting the ball into his own net and then stopped Che Adams from pouncing with the follow-up.
The Manchester United academy product dived at full stretch to deny a Danny Ings header but could do nothing about Djenepo’s smart finish.
West Brom were marginally better after the break but still did not trouble Alex McCarthy enough in the Southampton goal.
The hosts made sure of the points when Romeu superbly volleyed in Stuart Armstrong’s cross for his first goal in 20 months.
Southampton moved up to 10th before the rest of Sunday’s matches, while West Brom are 17th after collecting just one point from their first four games.
RESULTS
Leicester 0 – 3 West Ham
S’hampton 2 – 0 West Brom

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