Free-wheeling West Ham United coasted to a comfortable 2-0 victory over lowly Leicester City at London Stadium on Thursday.
Following up their 1-0 triumph at Arsenal five days earlier, the happy Hammers made it back-to-back wins for the first time in virtually a year, while the forlorn Foxes fell to an 11th defeat in their last dozen Premier League outings.
“Tonight was a very different challenge to the Arsenal game at the weekend,” insisted Graham Potter after two first-half goals enabled his team to soar 16 points clear of the dreaded drop-zone, while Ruud van Nistelrooy’s strugglers still remain five points from safety.
“I’m delighted with the result and the performance. We all needed to understand our roles and make sure we kept plenty of possession and attacked well.
"If you don’t do that then you can quite easily find your opponents making good clearances and see them attacking you, instead.
“There was a good structure to our play in the first half, we limited Leicester and this win now gives the players the belief and confidence that we can compete in different situations.”
Certainly, this one-sided contest was all but over by the interval.
Midway through the opening period, Tomáš Souček broke the deadlock on his 30th birthday after Aaron Cresswell’s deflected long-ranger fell into the path of Mohammed Kudus, who was denied by Mads Hermansen’s point-blank stop only for the 77-cap Czech Republic midfielder to bundle home the loose ball and claim his sixth goal of the campaign.
If the visitors were already bereft of self-belief, then their confidence hit rock-bottom two minutes before the break, when Jarrod Bowen’s tightly-angled shot ricocheted off Jannik Vestergaard ahead of spinning beyond Hermansen to double West Ham’s advantage.
“We managed the game very well in the second half,” added Potter who enjoyed the added bonus of consecutive shut-outs, too.
“I’m really pleased for the players because it’s hard to keep talking about attacking play if you concede too many goals. We’ve worked hard to improve defensively and we’ve got our rewards with three points and a second clean sheet.
“I wouldn’t call it a champagne football night but we were still very disciplined in our approach and continually tried to keep up the pressure.
"Although we were leading 2-0, I still didn’t feel relaxed and comfortable - I never do - because the quality of the Premier League means something can always happen. Now, we want to build on tonight.”
Leap-frogging Everton and joining Manchester United and Tottenham on 33 points, the Hammers head coach now has 11 games of the 2024/25 season to play, starting with the visit of Newcastle United on Monday (8pm).
“After tonight, we’ve now got to focus on the next match and look at the opportunities that will present,” said Potter.
“We want to keep building our game and more confidence brings more freedom to play. Whatever job you’re in, though, you still need to maintain the results to keep the wolves from the door but I’ve had great support from the moment I arrived.
“The people around me have seen our challenges with injuries and everything and there’s still lots more work to do to ensure we improve, but we’re definitely getting ourselves in a good place to move forward.”
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