Early goals and defensive lapses cost West Ham United dear again as Slaven Bilic’s side were edged out 3-2 by Leicester City.
The Hammers dominated for long stretches at London Stadium and, on the balance of play, should have won comfortably. Instead, conceding twice within the opening seven minutes ultimately gave them too much to do to rescue a point.
As West Ham’s winless run stretched to five, resurgent champions Leicester celebrated their maiden away win of the season in east London, having opened the scoring on their travels for the first time in 14 attempts.
Riyad Mahrez was the scorer, in slightly fortuitous circumstances, as his right-wing cross eluded the heads of Jamie Vardy and Shinji Okazaki before bouncing into the far corner.
Within two minutes it was 2-0 Leicester as West Ham’s marking completely evaporated from a short free-kick, enabling Mahrez to pick out the unmarked Robert Huth, who headed past Darren Randolph.
West Ham were shellshocked and their afternoon took another turn for the worse when captain Winston Reid was forced off with a right leg injury, with Robert Snodgrass coming on in his place.
Minutes later, the Hammers had a lifeline when Michail Antonio was brought down 25 yards from goal and Manuel Lanzini stepped up to curl an inch-perfect free-kick over the wall and under Kasper Schmeichel’s crossbar.
Just when you thought Leicester were rocking, another defensive error handed them a third goal. Andy Carroll missed his header from a corner, the ball hit Wilfred Ndidi and then Vardy, who then lashed high into the net from close range.
After missing a succession of half-chances, the Hammers went in 3-1 down at half-time, with a mountain to climb after the break.
The comeback looked to be on when Snodgrass’s corner was headed into the six-yard box for Ayew, whose own header was too strong for Schmeichel. Game on.
West Ham laid siege to the Foxes goal in the closing 20 minutes, but somehow failed to score an equaliser, while Pedro Obiang became the second home player to be forced off with a leg injury.
First, Carroll’s goalbound header was clawed away by Schmeichel from Ayew’s cross, before the Ghana star somehow shot too high after being played in by Antonio.
The chances kept on coming as Cheikhou Kouyate saw his low shot kept out by a goalline clearance from Danny Drinkwater. Then, in added time, Schmeichel made a stupendous stop from Carroll after the ball dropped to him from Snodgrass’s deflected free-kick.
There was time for Randolph to make his own fine stop to deny substitute Islam Slimani, but it was the earlier errors which leave everyone in Claret and Blue wondering how they managed to go home with nothing.
West Ham United: Randolph, Byram, Fonte, Reid © (Snodgrass 18), Cresswell (Masuaku 73), Obiang (Fernandes 67), Kouyate, Ayew, Lanzini, Antonio, Carroll
Subs not used: Adrian, Nordtveit, Collins, Feghouli
Goals: Lanzini 20, Ayew 63
Leicester City: Schmeichel (c), Simpson, Huth, Benalouane, Fuchs, Mahrez (Chilwell 86), Ndidi, Drinkwater, Albrighton, Okazaki (Musa 76), Vardy (Slimani 76)
Subs not used: Zieler, King, Amartey, Gray
Goals: Mahrez 5, Huth 7, Vardy 38
Booked: Drinkwater
Attendance; 56,979
Referee: Roger East