West Ham 2-0 Leicester: Hammers secure back-to-back victories as Ruud van Nistelrooy's side slump to yet another defeat in relegation battle

Graham Potter must never have imagined managing West Ham could be as simple and carefree as this. Yet the Hammers have rarely had it so easy as strikes from Tomas Soucek and an own goal from Jannik Vestergaard secured West Ham's first back-to-back league wins since March last year. West Ham have rarely had it as easy as they did in beating Leicester 2-0 on Thursday evening Tomas Soucek opened the scoring, with Jannik Vestergaard failing to cut out the ball before also scoring an own goal Graham Potter must never have imagined managing West Ham could be as simple and carefree as this If anything summed up the malaise of Leicester's relegation fight, or complete lack of it, it was centre-back Vestergaard, who failed to cut out a ball into the box for West Ham's opener before turning it into his own net for their second on the verge of half-time. Ruud van Nistelrooy's Leicester lost for the 11th time in their last 12 Premier League games Evan Ferguson missed a good chance to make it 3-0 and score his first goal for the club MATCH FACTS AND PLAYER RATINGS WEST HAM : Areola 7; Wan-Bissaka 7.5, Todibo 7, Kilman 7, Cresswell 8, Scarles 7 ; SOUCEK 8.5, Ward-Prowse 7.5, Alvarez 7 ; Bowen 8, Kudus 6.5 Subs not used: Fabianski, Rodriguez, Guilherme, Ings Scorers: Soucek 21, Vestergaard OG 43 Manager: Graham Potter 8 LEICESTER : Hermansen 6; Justin 5, Faes 5, Vestergaard 3, Kristiansen 6; Ndidi 6.5, Soumare 5.5 ; Buonanotte 5.5, El Khannouss 6; De Cordova-Reid 5, Vardy 6 Subs not used: Stolarczyk, Okoli, Coady, Skipp, Ayew Manager: Ruud van Nistelrooy 4 Vestergaard's refusal to make any effort to stop Aaron Cresswell's quality ball from reaching Kudus told you why one of these side looks to be moving forwards and the other is set for the drop.