Leicester City's defensive nightmares were exposed in East London on Monday night as West Ham United came out 4-1 winners with Michail Antonio scoring two whilst Leicester's Ayoze Perez was sent off for a dangerous tackle in the first half.

The Hammers welcomed back fans after 18 months and the Claret and Blue army made their presence known with a sell-out crowd roaring after Pablo Fornals tucked home his opener after 26-minutes. 

Fornals played a clever one-two with Said Benrahma on the left before continuing his run into the box, sweeping past Kasper Schmeichel with a first-time finish from 10 yards.

The Foxes were stunned but tried to stay composed with Perez finding Ricardo in the box only for him to smash his effort into the side netting. 

Perez was once again involved in the thick of the action, but this time for the wrong reasons.

A misplaced touch allowed Fornals to close in on the Spaniard but at the cost of a high foot which VAR told referee, Michael Oliver to look at the pitchside monitor which therefore led to a red card and losing any hope of getting anything out of the game. 

Brendan Rodgers' men were fortunate to head into the half-time break only 1-0 down, but their luck ran out as a sloppy backpass from Caglar Soyuncu led to West Ham's second. The Turkish international could only find Antonio who crossed for Benrahma to slot into an empty net despite Ricardo's best efforts. 

Foxes fans can be pleased with the brief fightback as Belgian star, Youri Tielemans bundled the ball past West Ham's Lukasz Fabianski to make it 2-1. However, any hope was lost 11 minutes later as Antonio picked up the ball with his back to goal, turning Luke  Thomas and Soyuncu to smash in his record-breaking goal which overtook Paulo Di Canio's goal scoring record. 

The night wasn't completely over as again, naive defending allowed Antonio to pick up a bouncing cross before touching over his head and poking past an on-coming Schmeichel to seal West Ham's second win of the season. 

  • Same old defensive story for the Foxes


For the second season in a row, the narrative that has hit Rodgers is injuries to so many defensive-minded players.

Jannik Vestergaard, Wesley Fofana, James Justin, Ryan Bertrand, Jonny Evans and Nampalys Mendy are all on the sidelines with only Bertrand looking the most likely to return any time soon. 

Daniel Amartey produced an excellent display against Manchester City in the Community Shield earlier on in the month but was shaky against Wolves and was simply bullied against West Ham. 

The Ghanaian international wasn't the only one with Soyuncu producing a poor display with poor passes including a sloppy backpass for West Hams second as well as weak long balls up to Jamie Vardy. 

If the Foxes are to mount a Champions League challenge as well as defend the FA cup, they simply have to fix up a very nervy defence and hope that their star men return sooner rather than later. 

  • What next?


Vardy and co. head to East Anglia to face newly promoted Norwich City who may see this as a chance to really kick-start their season as the Canaries haven't been given the easiest of starts facing Liverpool and Manchester City, but after watching the Foxes' dismal display on Monday they may be encouraged. 

Leicester will of course be without many defenders but also be without Perez after his red card against the Hammers.

Rodgers will not find it hard to pick his players back up as tactics and formations are still gelling together and with Harvey Barnes looking back to his best as well as Ricardo, the Foxes will look to hunt down the Canaries this Saturday at Carrow Road.