EPL Soccer match Reports; Lingard’s Double propels West Ham into Top 4 as Utd overwhelm Spurs

EPL Soccer Matchday 31 of 38: Sunday, April 12, 2021

West Ham 3 Leicester City 2 – London City

Jesse Lingard continued with his scintillating run of form by finding the back of the net twice as West Ham beat third-placed Leicester City 3-2 at the London stadium on Sunday afternoon.

After a dreary half-an-hour's of play with no clear-cut chances for either side, David Moyes Hammers broke the stalemate in the 29th minute. Arthur Masuaku delivered a cross through to right-back Vladimir Coufal who raced ahead and cut back from the line for Lingard to take a snap first-time shot from the edge of the box that whizzed past Leicester keeper Kasper Schmeichel at the near post.

The 28-year-old loanee from Manchester United had a hand in West Ham's third, three minutes into the second half after Arthur Masuaku stole possession from Kelechi Iheanacho and fed Lingard down the left. Lingard then cut the ball back to Tomas Soucek, who played it on to Jarred Bowen for the easiest of finish from 8 yards.

[su_panel color=”#131518″ border=”7px solid #cc0000″]West Ham, who had earlier relented a 3-0 lead to draw against Arsenal, saw the jitters returning once again as Arthur Masuaku gifted possession to Kelechi Iheanacho inside the area. The Nigerian turned on to his left foot and smashed the ball past Lukasz Fabianski to help the Foxes stay in the game with barely 20 minutes of play left.[/su_panel]

Following Benrahma's lapse, Marc Albrighton sent a low cross into the box that was deflected back to Iheanacho who squeezed in a shot between two defenders to make it 2-3 for Leicester.

The six minutes of extra time looked agonizingly long for the hosts as the Foxes went close to a dramatic equalizer when Wesley Fofana headed wide at the death from a Luke Thomas ball into the box.

Tottenham Hotspur 1 Manchester United 3

Tottenham's Champions League aspirations took a further hit as Manchester United came back from behind to beat them 3-1 in North London last Sunday evening.

[su_panel]United thought they had gone ahead when Edinson Cavani finished smoothly from a Paul Pogba pass but the goal was controversially ruled out by referee Chris Kavanagh following a VAR check that showed Scott McTominay catching Son Heung-min on the face with his trailing arm in the build-up.[/su_panel]

It was Son's 14th Premier League goal for the 2020-21 season, equalling his previous best tally in 2016/17.

As expected, the Red Devils turned on the heat after the interval with McTominay's curling effort testing Hugo Lloris to the full. Bruno Fernandes, Marcus Rashford and Fred then combined beautifully with Fred slotting Cavani through on goal.

[su_panel]Cavani's left-footed attempt was parried away by Lloris only for the ball to fall to a waiting Fred who tapped in merrily for his first goal in two-and-a-half years.[/su_panel]

1-1 in the 57th minute.

The game swung both ways for a while as Dean Henderson was forced into a right-legged save from Son's low drive and the keeper was made to use his feet again a little later to deny Kane from a tight angle.

But it were Solksjaer's Red Devils who went ahead when Cavani dove in to head home spectacularly from eight yards from a beautifully delivered Mason Greenwood cross.

Spurs almost levelled with six to go with Cavani diverting the ball onto the post after chaotic goalmouth melee, but the game was put to bed when the influential Pogba shook off Eric Dier and Pierre Emile Hojbjerg at the back to feed Greenwood who made no mistake as he struck a fierce right-footer past Lloris six minutes into injury time.

[su_panel]Spurs who had beaten United 6-1 in the reverse fixture back in October dropped to the seventh after Sunday's home defeat and are seven points adrift of the Top Four space at 49 while their rivals are safely ensconced in the second spot with 63 points after 31 games.[/su_panel]

Other Soccer Results from April 12, 2021 

• Sheffield United 0, Arsenal 3 – Alexander Lacazette 33′ 85′, Gabriel Martinelli 71″
• Burnley 1 – Matej Vydra 18″, Newcastle 2 – Jacob Murphy 59″, Allan Saint-Maximin 64″

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