Red-hot Lingard at the double for West Ham while Newcastle earn vital win in battle against relegation
Jesse Lingard continued his red-hot form with two goals for West Ham in their 3-2 win over Leicester City yesterday.
The England midfielder took his goal tally to eight in nine appearances since joining on loan from Manchester United in January to help lift the Hammers back into the top four.
David Moyes’ side held off a late fightback and are now a point behind the third-placed Foxes, on course for Champions League qualification.
Three Leicester players – James Maddison, Hamza Choudhury and Ayoze Perez – were dropped from the squad for breaching Covid-19 protocols. It took a moment of quality from Lingard, in front of watching England manager Gareth Southgate, to open the scoring just before the halfhour mark.
Right-back Vladimir Coufal cut the ball back to the Lingard, who sent a precise volley past Kasper Schmeichel from the edge of the area. Lingard struck again before half time when Jarrod Bowen stayed just onside for a long ball, raced towards the goal, and when Schmeichel came out, the winger squared for Lingard to tap into an empty net.
The Hammers were 3-0 up just three minutes into the second half after Arthur Masuaku robbed Kelechi Iheanacho and fed Lingard down the left. He cut the ball back to Tomas Soucek, who played it on to Bowen for a simple finish from eight yards.
But West Ham have found 3-0 margins hard to hold on to in recent matches, having been pegged back to 3-3 by Arsenal and clung on for a 3-2 win at Wolves last week.
The jitters threatened to set in again when Masuaku lost possession and Iheanacho lashed home with 20 minutes remaining. And the striker grabbed his 11th goal in 11 games when he prodded in Marc Albrighton’s cross at the start of six minutes of stoppage time.
“We almost made a mess of it at the end,” said Lingard after the match. “It has been like that for three games. We are still learning.
Newcastle United took a giant step towards securing their survival with a vital 2-1 win at Burnley. The hosts took the lead after 18 minutes as Ashley Westwood pounced on a poor header from Newcastle defender Ciaran Clark.
Westwood played in Chris Wood and he pulled the ball back from the touchline for Vydra to net from close range.
Newcastle winger Allan Saint-Maximin turned the game after coming on as a 57th-minute substitute. He surged down the right flank and drew three defenders towards him before pulling the ball back for Jacob Murphy to equalise in the 59th minute.
Five minutes later, Saint-Maximin produced a brilliant individual effort as he ran at the Burnley defence before driving his low shot past Bailey Peacock-Farrell. Fourth-bottom Newcastle are six points clear of the relegation zone and hold a game in hand on Fulham who are 18th.