West Ham dominated a 10-man Leicester City team Monday at London Stadium as Michail Antonio became West Ham’s top scorer in the Premier League.
“It’s amazing! I’m so relieved. In the first half I was overdoing it, trying to get the goal, but in the second half I didn’t let it affect me so much and I got two goals and an assist,” Antonio said.
Antonio scored goal No. 48 and No. 49 as the 31-year-old made club history.
“The atmosphere was amazing,” Antonio added. “There’s nothing better than scoring a goal and then hearing the roar of a crowd. Nothing better. I’ve never been top of the table since I’ve been at this club, so I’m just gonna enjoy that now! We’ve got belief in ourselves – we work hard and we’ve got the quality to break teams down. When the gaffer first came in, one of the first things he said is that our running stats weren’t good enough. We were 17th place in the running stats, but now we’re top of that table, and we’re top of the the table.”
Ayoze Perez’s red card in the first half was a major hurdle for Leicester, but West Ham seemed to be in control from the first minute.
Schmeichel led the protests for Leicester when Perez was sent off, but it seems to have been the right call given the studs hitting the players’ calf.
“It was a hard tackle by Ayoze, but it’s true that he was pushed into me by Aaron Cresswell, so I have no bad things to say about him,” Pablo Fornals said on the red card.
It became the Spaniard’s first red card in English football, on appearance No. 274.
West Ham have now scored eight times in two games. Quite the start to the 2021-2022 Premier League campaign.