Fresh from their hard-fought victory at Arsenal, West Ham United welcome relegation-threatened Leicester City to the London Stadium for a Premier League clash on Thursday night.
The Hammers will be seeking revenge against the Foxes after they suffered a 3-1 defeat at the King Power Stadium in December last year.
Match preview
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West Ham ended a four-match winless run in the Premier League and condemned Arsenal to their first top-flight home defeat of the season when they secured a slender 1-0 victory at the Emirates Stadium on Saturday.
The Hammers absorbed 44 minutes of pressure from the hosts before captain marvel Jarrod Bowen headed home what proved to be the match-winner on the stroke of half time. The second-half dismissal of Myles Lewis-Skelly helped West Ham's cause and they eventually held on to win consecutive away matches against the Gunners for the first time since 2005-06/2006-07.
Last weekend's victory represents just the second of Graham Potter's West Ham reign and although it was not enough to help the Hammers climb from 16th place in the Premier League table, any fears of relegation seem to have evaporated, as they now sit 13 points above the drop zone with 12 league matches remaining.
West Ham have lost their last two Premier League home matches under Potter (2-0 to Crystal Palace and 1-0 to Brentford), and having already lost three in a row at the London Stadium under former boss Julen Lopetegui earlier this term, the Hammers are now seeking to avoid recorded two separate runs of at least three consecutive home defeats in the same league season.
The East Londoners will back themselves to come out on top on Thursday, as they have won eight of their last nine Premier League home games against promoted teams and have lost only one of their last 14 such matches overall (W11 D2), although that defeat was against Leicester in the aforementioned reverse fixture almost three months ago.
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Since steering Leicester to victory at home against West Ham in his first match at the helm, head coach Ruud van Nistelrooy has suffered 10 Premier League defeats in his last 12 games, losing each of his last six at the King Power Stadium by an aggregate score of 15-0.
The Foxes' hopes of avoiding an immediate return to the Championship were dealt another major blow a week last Friday when they suffered a heavy 4-0 home defeat to Brentford, leaving them 19th in the table and five points adrift of safety with 12 matches left to play.
First-team coach Ben Dawson and goalkeeping coach Danny Alcock have since parted company with Leicester, a decision that Van Nistelrooy has described as the "best solution", while the Dutchman himself is understood to have the immediate backing of the Foxes board to revive the club's campaign.
Only basement club Southampton (five) have accumulated fewer Premier League away points that Leicester (eight) this season, while the Foxes are the only top-flight team who are yet to register a single clean sheet on the road, conceding a league-high 32 goals in 12 matches.
However, Leicester will welcome an encounter with West Ham, as they have beaten the Hammers in their last three Premier League meetings, more than they had in their previous 10 beforehand (W2 D4 L4), while they have also lost just four of their last 11 battles with them in the division (W5 D2).
Team News
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Potter has revealed West Ham duo both Lucas Paqueta (ankle) and Vladimir Coufal (hamstring) are "progressing" in their recovery from injury, but they remain on the sidelines along with Michail Antonio (leg), Crysencio Summerville and Niclas Fullkrug (both hamstring).
Potter switched to a 5-3-2 formation for the win at Arsenal, but the Hammers boss may revert to a four-man defence against a struggling Leicester outfit, which could see Aaron Cresswell make way and Emerson Palmieri potentially recalled at left-back at the expense of Oliver Scarles, who was handed his first PL start last weekend.
Bowen and Mohamed Kudus are both set to continue in attack and they could be joined by January loan signing Evan Ferguson, who is pushing to start his first PL game since joining the Hammers, while Carlos Soler could be recalled to start either in centre-midfield or on the left flank.
As for Leicester, Abdul Fatawu and Ricardo Pereira remain out with respective knee and muscle injuries, while James Justin (ankle) will be assessed ahead of kickoff after missing the defeat to Brentford.
Woyo Coulibaly will continue at right-back if Justin is not deemed fit to start, while Jannik Vestergaard could force his way back into the heart of defence at the expense of either Wout Faes or Caleb Okoli.
Bilal El Khannouss and Jamie Vardy, who were both on the scoresheet against West Ham earlier this season, are set to retain their places in attack, while Stephy Mavididi and Facundo Buonanotte could be the Foxes pair who join them in the final third, with Bobby De Cordova-Reid and Jordan Ayew making way.
West Ham United possible starting lineup:
Areola; Wan-Bissaka, Todibo, Kilman, Emerson; Soucek, Ward-Prowse; Bowen, Kudus, Soler; Ferguson
Leicester City possible starting lineup:
Hermansen; Coulibaly, Faes, Okoli, Kristiansen; Soumare, Ndidi; Buonanotte, El Khannouss, Mavididi; Vardy
We say: West Ham United 3-1 Leicester City
Leicester can ill-afford to drop too many more points if they wish to close the gap to safety. Improvements in defence are paramount, while they could also do with rediscovering the attacking form that they displayed in their previous win over West Ham.
However, in stark contrast to the Foxes, the Hammers are in high spirits following last weekend's win and will view Thursday's contest as a good opportunity to outscore their defensively frail opponents en route to collecting three more points and beginning a positive run of form.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Oliver Thomas
