'There's Plenty For West Ham To Be Encouraged About'
- West Ham United travel to take on Leicester City at King Power Stadium on Sunday (12pm kick-off)
- The Hammers come into the game off the back of a morale-boosting first league win
- Football.London's Sam Inkersole was impressed with West Ham's performance against Wolves
- He earmarked Michael Antonio and Jarrod Bowen as the London side's main threats
After two defeats from two to start the season, the Hammers got the first league win under their belts last weekend, beating Wolverhampton Wanderers 4-0 at London Stadium.
Inkersole believes the east London outfit will be encouraged by that result, despite losing to Everton in the Carabao Cup in midweek, ahead of the trip to face Leicester City on Filbert Way this weekend (12pm kick-off).
"They got beat 4-1 in by Everton in the Carabao Cup, but that was a much changed side, with eight changes in total from the team that beat Wolves," Inkersole explained to LCFC TV.
"If you're looking at the Premier League XI and those players that played the Wolves game last Sunday, the confidence is very high indeed.
"Jarrod Bowen has got off the mark for the season with two goals, which is a big confidence boost for him, so absolutely, they are in buoyant mood.
"Despite the first game of the season against Newcastle United, it's not really been that bad for West Ham and there's certainly a lot to be encouraged about heading into what is going to be a really tough one this weekend."
Inkersole believes the players have not let off-field situations affect them, as they look to build on their first victory of the Premier League campaign.
He continued: "By all intents and purposes, they seem to be coping fine with without David Moyes (who tested positive for COVID-19 last month). There's also the two players who tested positive before the Hull game and they have been in training as of Thursday.
"They are not expected to feature this weekend, but judging by the game against Wolves especially, it doesn't look like it affected them whatsoever.
"Moyes has been communicating with the bench via an old school analogue telephone, which has been hooked up into London Stadium, with first team coach Stuart Pearce relaying instructions down to Alan Irvine in the dugout. Moyes still has the final say, even on substitutions in game, he's still making the calls there. It's still as normal as it possibly can be.
"We're all working remotely at the moment and Moyes is just having to work from his apartment in the capital, but as Alan Irvine said in his press conference, Moyes still has all the final say on team selection, substitutions and tactics. Looking at the Wolves game, it didn't really look like there was much difference."
Inkersole identified two of West Ham's attacking threats as the main danger men that Leicester's backline will have to watch out for this weekend. One of those, Jarrod Bowen, scored twice in West Ham's 4-0 victory over Wolverhampton Wanderers last weekend.
"Michael Antonio has been in inspired form since lockdown, when they came back he scored eight goals at the back end of last season and those goals effectively kept West Ham in the Premier League," he added.
"I don't think anyone can deny that, without those goals, they could have quite easily gone down last year. He's not got off the mark yet this season but he's been really good in the first two Premier League games.
"He worried Connor Coady completely last weekend, who is not the worst defender by any stretch for Wolves. He's in a rich vain of form at the moment so he's certainly a danger man.
"Jarrod Bowen scored two goals last week just to get him off the mark for the season. They were two goals that he needed since his move from Hull, he'd only scored one previous to that last season, but that didn't really tell the whole story.
"He supplied four assists and his work rate has been fantastic, but he just needed those goals just to get himself going. Now he's got them, he's a real threat coming off that right flank and cutting inside on his left foot."
All times BST.