West Ham United manager Sam Allardyce has insisted that Leicester City counterpart Nigel Pearson deserves time to turn his side's fortunes around.

Allardyce's Hammers beat Leicester 2-0 at Upton Park on Saturday, leaving the Foxes five points adrift of safety at the bottom of the Premier League.

The West Ham boss says that Pearson deserves to be backed by the East Midlands outfit after guiding them to promotion from the Championship last season.

"He is a very good manager and he has proved that. I hope the club are patient with him and give him some funds to spend in January," Allardyce told BBC Sport.

"If you look at Leicester's results, they rarely lose by two goals, even though they haven't won any games since beating Manchester United.

"That's disappointing for Nigel, because he is a friend of mine and I want him to do better, and also because his team shows a lot of commitment. They are not too far away and only one thing is missing in their team and that's a goalscorer."

Leicester have failed to win any of their last 12 league matches.