West Ham United continue their 2020/21 Premier League season with the visit of Leicester City to London Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
The Hammers welcome the Foxes for their 31st of 38 top-flight games, knowing a win will keep them in fourth place in the table and also close the gap on their third-place opponents to just a single point.
The Irons will be seeking to complete a fifth Premier League double of the season, having previously beaten Wolverhampton Wanderers, Sheffield United, Leeds United and Aston Villa at home and away.
West Ham scored a superb 3-0 win at King Power Stadium on 4 October 2020, when Michail Antonio, Pablo Fornals and Jarrod Bowen were on target in a game that manager David Moyes watched from home following his positive COVID-19 test.
Moyes' side kick-off the weekend with the second-best home record in the Premier League, having collected 28 points from 15 matches played at London Stadium. Leicester, meanwhile, arrive in east London with the second-best away record in the top flight, having amassed 34 points and lost just one of their 15 games on their travels.
Following the passing of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh on Friday at the age of 99, both sets of players will wear black armbands and two minutes’ silence will be held before kick-off.
With the country in national lockdown, Sunday's game will be played without supporters present. However, the 2.05pm kick-off will be screened live in the UK by Sky Sports and across the world by the Premier League's international broadcast partners.
Click here to get your 116-page Official Programme for Sunday's game.
Richard House Children's Hospice
Sunday’s fixture is dedicated to raising awareness for West Ham United’s charity partner Richard House Children's Hospice, which is based in east London and provides palliative care to children with life-limiting and life-threatening conditions across London.
Opened in 2000, Richard House was London’s first children’s hospice. It was founded by their Life-President Anthea Hare, who was inspired by both her experience as a paediatric nurse at Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, and through helping her parents to look after her severely autistic brother.
They now support more than 300 families from Newham, Barking, Dagenham, Tower Hamlets, Waltham Forest, Hackney, Redbridge, Haringey, Islington, Ilford, Camden and into south Essex.
Richard House ensure that children receive the care and families receive the support they need, when and where they need it. £3 out of every £4 they need to spend, must come from donations. There are many ways you can support them and local seriously ill children. Simply go to richardhouse.org.uk.
Team news
West Ham United will be without Declan Rice, who suffered a lateral knee ligament injury while on international duty with England in March. Michail Antonio suffered a hamstring injury and was replaced during the first half of Monday's 3-2 win at Wolverhampton Wanderers and is unlikely to play.
Angelo Ogbonna has returned to training after recovering from the ankle injury he suffered in an FA Cup defeat at Manchester United in February, while Andriy Yarmolenko is getting closer to a return following the knee injury he suffered in the same tie.
Darren Randolph (hip) and Ryan Fredericks (groin) have both been recovering from their respective injuries at Rush Green.
Leicester are likely to be without Turkey centre-back Çağlar Söyüncü following a COVID-19 outbreak in his international squad. However, his compatriot, winger Cengiz Ünder, could return from a thigh injury.
Winger Harvey Barnes has a knee injury and is ruled out, while full-back James Justin is also sidelined with a knee problem.
The opposition – Leicester City
It tells you everything you need to know about how well Leicester City have performed in recent seasons that nobody is surprised to see the Foxes challenging for a top-four finish and domestic silverware.
After winning promotion from the Championship in 2014, Leicester shocked the world by winning the Premier League title two years later.
Under Italian manager Claudio Ranieri and with a squad led by captain Wes Morgan, striker Jamie Vardy, midfielder N’Golo Kanté and winger Riyad Mahrez, the Foxes lost just three of their 38 top-flight matches to win the league by ten points.
The following season, Leicester’s league form dipped and Ranieri was replaced by assistant Craig Shakespeare, but the East Midlands club still reached the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals.
In 2017/18 and 2018/19, with Harry Maguire anchoring the back four and Vardy continuing to bang in the goals, the Foxes twice finished ninth and reached three domestic cup quarter-finals.
Last season, under former Liverpool and Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers, who was appointed in February 2019 in place of Frenchman Claude Puel, Leicester looked on course to qualify for the UEFA Champions League, but a run of two wins in their last nine Premier League matches saw them slip to fifth. They also reached the EFL Cup semi-finals and FA Cup quarter-finals, confirming their place as one of England’s top sides.
This season, Rodgers has again worked wonders, with Leicester third in the table and through to the FA Cup semi-finals.
Previous meetings
West Ham United welcome Leicester City to east London for a Premier League fixture for the 28th time on Sunday afternoon.
The Hammers hold the all-time edge, winning 12 of the previous 27 meetings, with six draws and nine victories for the Foxes.
West Ham have outscored Leicester 40-34 in the Premier League, and kept eight clean sheets to Leicester’s three, including one in a 3-0 win in the reverse fixture at King Power Stadium on 4 October 2020.
West Ham have also had more men sent-off in the 27 Premier League matches between the two, four to three – Don Hutchison, Igor Štimac, Adrián and Mark Noble have all seen red against the Foxes. However, Leicester players have been booked 45 times to West Ham’s 44.
The aforementioned 3-0 win earlier this season was West Ham’s biggest over Leicester in the Premier League, while Leicester’s biggest victory was the 4-1 they achieved at King Power Stadium in January last year.
The highest scoring Premier League match between the two was in May 1998, when Samassi Abou (two), Frank Lampard and Trevor Sinclair secured a 4-3 home win for the Irons at the Boleyn Ground.
David Moyes has faced Leicester nine times as a manager with Everton and West Ham, winning four, drawing three and losing two. He has also won four of his nine meetings with Brendan Rodgers.
By the numbers
1919/20 West Ham United faced Leicester City during their first season as a Football League club, 1919/20. The two faced one another at Filbert Street on 8 November 1919, where the Second Division fixture ended in a goalless draw. However, the Irons got the better of the reverse fixture at the Boleyn Ground a week later, when full-back Frank Burton scored the only goal of the game from the penalty spot.
8 Teammates and close friends Geoff Hurst and Brian Dear share the record for the most goals scored by a West Ham United player against Leicester City, with eight. Dear’s eight goals came in just five appearances, including five in the space of five days just after Christmas 1967. The forward scored a hat-trick in a 4-2 Boxing Day win at the Boleyn Ground before adding two more in a victory by the same scoreline at Filbert Street on 30 December. Dear added two more in a 4-0 win the following season, in November 1968, and another to earn a 1-1 away draw in February 1969. Prior to that, two of Hurst’s eight had come in a 4-3 League Cup semi-final first leg defeat by the Foxes at Filbert Street in February 1964, and two more in a thrilling 5-4 away First Division defeat in August 1966.
6-0 West Ham United’s biggest-ever league win over Leicester City came in the promotion-winning 1922/23 season. The Hammers thrashed the Foxes 6-0 at Filbert Street on their way to the First Division on 15 February 1923, with Billy Moore scoring a hat-trick, fellow England internationals Jimmy Ruffell and Jack Tresadern and Wales striker Dick Richards also getting their names on the scoresheet. Leicester’s biggest win over West Ham came in the First Division on 15 September 1928, when the Foxes won 5-0 at Filbert Street.
14 Mark Noble has faced Leicester City 14 times as a West Ham United player – nine in the Premier League, four in the Championship and once in the EFL Cup. The Club captain has scored two goals in those fixtures, including a memorable volley to secure a 2-0 win at King Power Stadium that kept the Irons in the Premier League in May 2018. Noble was also sent-off in a 1-1 draw at the same venue in October of the same year.
17 Some 17 players have made their West Ham United debuts in competitive fixtures against Leicester, including current first-team defender Vladimir Coufal, who did so in a 3-0 Premier League win at King Power Stadium on 4 October 2020. Before the Czech Republic right-back, the other 16 were William Waugh, Wally St. Pier, Frederick Gamble, Jack Weare, Charlie Walker, Ken Wright, Eric Parsons, Bob Wyllie, Eddie Lewis, Alan Sealey, Roger Hugo, Ian Bishop, Trevor Morley, Sergei Rebrov, Teddy Sheringham and Pedro Obiang.
4 Four former West Ham United players have managed Leicester City. Frank O’Farrell, who played for the Irons from 1948-56, and is the oldest living West Ham player at 93, managed Leicester from 1968-71, winning the Second Division title in 1971 before moving to Manchester United. O’Farrell was succeeded by another ex-Hammer, Jimmy Bloomfield (pictured, below), who kept the Foxes in the First Division for his six-year reign, produced an entertaining side and reached the FA Cup semi-finals in 1974. Martin Allen spent a short period in charge at King Power Stadium between May-August 2007, before Chris Powell was appointed as caretaker manager alongside Mike Stowell in October 2010.
2017 David Moyes took charge of his first home match as West Ham United manager against Leicester City on 24 November 2017. Marc Albrighton put the Foxes into an eighth-minute lead at London Stadium in the Premier League, but Cheikhou Kouyaté equalised on the stroke of half-time to secure Moyes a point from his game in charge at London Stadium.
2000 West Ham United great Tony Cottee, who netted 146 goals in 336 appearances across two spells in Claret and Blue, joined Leicester City at the age of 31 in 1997. Cottee enjoyed three seasons with the Foxes, reaching the League Cup final in 1999 and again in 2000, when he finally won the only major trophy of his career as Leicester beat Tranmere Rovers 2-1 at the old Wembley Stadium.
26 The following 26 players have been on the books of both West Ham United and Leicester City: Rufus Brevett, Franz Carr, Gary Charles, Clive Clarke, David Connolly, Tony Cottee, Brian Deane, Les Ferdinand, Andy Impey, David Kelly, Paul Kitson, Paul Konchesky, Colin Mackleworth, David Martin, Frederick Milnes, Mike Newell, William Oakes, John Paintsil, Chris Powell, Norman Proctor, Jimmy Quinn, Keith Robson, Stuart Slater, Nolberto Solano, David Speedie and Matthew Upson.
Match officials
Referee: Mike Dean
Assistant Referees: Ian Hussin and Mark Scholes
Fourth Official: Simon Hooper
VAR: Michael Oliver
Assistant VAR: Dan Cook
Mike Dean was born in Wirral, just across the River Mersey from Liverpool, in June 1968, making him 52.
A Tranmere Rovers supporter, Dean began his refereeing career in the Northern Premier League before graduating to the Football League list of assistant referees in 1995.
After two seasons running the line and three as a Football League referee, Dean was promoted to the Select Group of Premier League officials in 2000.
Since then, Dean has refereed a succession of high-profile fixtures, including the FA Cup and League Cup finals and Championship Play-Off final.
Dean also took charge of international qualifiers and friendly matches up until 2013, when he reached FIFA’s mandatory retirement age of 45.
The first Premier League referee to show 100 red cards, Dean has refereed West Ham United on 60 occasions, including the 3-2 win over Manchester United in the final game at the Boleyn Ground in May 2016.
This season, he officiated the Emirates FA Cup third round win at Stockport County in January, the goalless Premier League draw at Fulham in February and last month’s 2-0 home top-flight win over Leeds United.
