Red-hot Jesse Lingard scores twice as West Ham hold on for victory over Leicester City

England midfielder takes goal tally to eight in nine appearances for Hammers in 3-2 victory at London Stadium

Jesse Lingard celebrates scoring West Ham United's second goal in their 3-2 victory over Leicester City at the London Stadium on Sunday, April 11. Reuters

Jesse Lingard scores his, and West Ham's, second goal against Leicester. Reuters

Jesse Lingard celebrates scoring the opening goal with his West Ham teammates. Reuters

Jesse Lingard scores West Ham's opener. Reuters

Jarrod Bowen celebrates scoring West Ham's third goal. Reuters

West Ham manager David Moyes. Reuters

Leicester City striker Jamie Vardy after West Ham's third goal. AFP

West Ham's Jesse Lingard celebrates scoring the opening goal. PA

West Ham's Jarrod Bowen makes it 3-0. AP

Kelechi Iheanacho rushes back to restart the match after scoring his, and Leicester's, second goal in injury time. EPA

West Ham celebrate after Jarrod Bowen's goal. EPA

Leicester's Jamie Vardy shoots at goal. AFP

Leicester goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel competes for a header in the opposition box as the Foxes chase a last-gasp equaliser. Getty

Jesse Lingard continued his red-hot form with two goals for West Ham in their 3-2 win over Leicester City.

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 Leicester fightback and are now just a point behind the third-placed Foxes, and still on course to gatecrash the Champions League next season.

Three Leicester players – James Maddison, Hamza Choudhury and Ayoze Perez – were dropped from their squad for breaching Covid-19 protocols.

The first half an hour at the London Stadium would not exactly have had the European giants quaking in their boots, though.

But a moment of quality from the in-form Lingard, in front of England manager Gareth Southgate, put West Ham ahead.

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 the Leicester defence was caught out by a long ball from Issa Diop.

Jarrod Bowen stayed just onside as he raced towards goal, and as 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.

Lingard 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 leads 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 on Monday.

The jitters threatened to set in again when Masuaku lost possession and Iheanacho lashed home with 20 minutes remaining. And Iheanacho grabbed his 11th goal in 11 games when he prodded in Marc Albrighton's cross at the start of six minutes of stoppage time.

Wesley Fofana then headed a last-gasp chance wide as West Ham held on to inflict only a second away defeat of the season on the Foxes, and strengthen their unlikely bid for a place at Europe's top table.

"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.

"I am picking up good positions, where the ball is falling. It's confidence, instinct, knowing players and where the right and left back and going to put it.

"Games are like cup finals. We grind out the wins and take the points home."

As for Leicester, the defeat capped a tough few days that saw midfielders Maddison and Choudhury, plus striker Perez, punished by the club.

"We have a set of values for the team, for this club and we have to adhere to that," manager Brendan Rodgers told Sky Sports.

"It was a decision I made, an internal situation last weekend. It is not the standard we expect. They are all good guys, good lads, but we have a standard on and off the pitch.

"The boys will rejoin the group after this game. It's internal, it's something we have dealt with. The boys, it's disappointing behaviour, it's a mistake. It's not what we are about."