West Ham United 1-2 Leicester City
- Published
Leicester's Danny Drinkwater, left, challenges West Ham midfielder Cheikhou Kouyate
Leicester held on to beat West Ham and continue their 100% winning start to the season under Claudio Ranieri.
Shinji Okazaki put the Foxes ahead, heading home the loose ball after goalkeeper Adrian blocked his volley.
First-half display outstanding - Ranieri
Riyad Mahrez made it 2-0 before half-time with a powerful finish for his third goal of the season.
West Ham improved after the break and Dimitri Payet pulled a goal back, but Kasper Schmeichel denied Diafra Sakho as they searched for an equaliser.
Schmeichel had escaped punishment for colliding with Sakho inside the area before half-time but his opposite number Adrian was not so lucky late in the game.
The Hammers keeper was sent off for a challenge on Jamie Vardy after he went up for a corner in stoppage time.
A hard lesson for Reece Oxford
After his impressive display in West Ham's win over Arsenal last weekend, young West Ham midfielder Reece Oxford found things a lot more difficult against the Foxes.
The 16-year-old, who will find out his GCSE results on Thursday, found it hard to cope with the pace and movement of Leicester's attack as the visitors went 2-0 up inside 38 minutes.
Leicester always looked to break quickly and both their goals came through neat build-ups and clever final balls from first Vardy and then Albrighton.
Vardy was this week given a "substantial" fine and ordered to undergo diversity awareness training after allegedly abusing a Japanese man in a casino
Oxford was not the only West Ham player to have a poor game defensively in the first 45 minutes but he was the one taken off at half-time as Hammers boss Slaven Bilic tried to find a way back into the game.
"It was not that Reece played worse than the rest of the team," Bilic said. "He played well but our passing was really slow in the first half and with Pedro Obiang we were much quicker in tempo."
Hammers reshuffle almost pays off
West Ham attacked more down the left than anywhere else
West Ham saw most of the ball in the first half - enjoying 63% possession with an 83% passing accuracy - but did little damage with it and did not manage a shot on target before the break.
Bilic brought on new signing Obiang for Oxford at half-time but also asked Mauro Zarate to hug the left touchline and that helped the Hammers significantly increase their attacking threat, particularly down that flank.
The Hammers enjoyed even more possession as the game went on but Leicester defended deep and in numbers and held out thanks to Schmeichel's key save from Sakho, one of three good stops he made after the break.
Manager reaction
Leicester boss Claudio Ranieri: "We are working very hard with the defensive line. I have very good players in front, very fast but it is important we all stay together.
Bilic disappointed with bad result
"I didn't want to defend too deep but when you see your players go deep it is better to help them with their mentality."
West Ham manager Slaven Bilic: "We lost the game in the first half. Two-nil down is very difficult to come back from. We are very disappointed.
"We scored a goal early enough in the second half to play our normal game but with more aggression. I was expecting us to score a second, but we didn't."
Man of the match
Leicester striker Shinji Okazaki came off after 62 minutes but not before he had scored his first goal since his summer move from German side Mainz and also had a hand in the Foxes second goal
The stats you need to know
BBC Sport's chief football writer Phil McNulty on Leicester
Leicester City have won their opening two games of a Premier League season for the first time since 1997-98
The Foxes have won 28 points since the start of April 2015 - more than any other Premier League side
Leicester have won nine of their last 11 Premier League fixtures - one more than they managed in their previous 55 top-flight games
Since Aug 2010 Dimitri Payet has scored or assisted 93 goals in the top five leagues, four more than Mesut Ozil and Juan Mata in that period
Payet's goal in the 55th minute was West Ham's first shot on target of the game
- Published9 August 2015
