---
title: "West Ham crashed back down to Earth following Leicester defeat"
canonical: "https://readwestham.com/2015/08/18/west-ham-crashed-back-earth-following-leicester-defeat/"
type: "post"
language: "en-GB"
author: "markbryans"
section: "Feature Writers"
published: "2015-08-18T12:07:40Z"
modified: "2015-08-18T12:07:40Z"
---

# West Ham crashed back down to Earth following Leicester defeat

Saturday saw the official ‘Claret and Blue’ day at the Boleyn Ground.

Many West Ham fans are probably sporting similar coloured bruises on their backsides after crashing back down to earth with a bang.

For what a week followed that memorable victory at Arsenal which promised hope, youthful exuberance, attacking flair and a season to remember.

Since then the club have had to deal with the revelation surrounding Diafra Sakho’s arrest and the fall-out from Slaven Bilic’s, err… fall-out with Morgan Amalfitano – not to mention supporter unease and unrest at the mere suggestion Joey Barton was about to sign up.

And to top it off, Leicester turned up in east London and stole the show, the Foxes completely outfoxing the West Ham system – getting their wide men to exploit the narrow-minded narrowness of Bilic’s midfield diamond.

![West Ham United v Leicester City - Premier League](https://media.readwestham.com/readwestham/2015/08/484111258.jpg)

Mark Noble certainly would not have been smiling like a Cheshire cat after this one.

It was only when Bilic changed the shape that his side came alive, with the introduction of debutant Pedro Obiang also helping as the Spaniard looked right at home in the Premier League.

So does the Arsenal result mask issues that have needed addressing since Bilic replaced Sam Allardyce?

The club slid out of Europe, kids or not, and have also now seen four players sent off at such an early stage of the season.

Bilic will be hoping his first-team players who were largely exempt from Europa League action will benefit later in the year but the side still looked leggy against Leicester.

There is not a lot of pace in the current team and someone like Riyad Mahrez, who was a constant thorn in the side of Aaron Cresswell, would add so much to the squad.

Bilic has said he hopes for one of two further additions before the window opens and he needs to be savvy in who he recruits if fans are to enjoy anything like the euphoria of the opening weekend.

![West Ham United v Leicester City - Premier League](https://media.readwestham.com/readwestham/2015/08/484106486.jpg)

I was telling anyone who would listen that, if I were Bilic, not only would I bring a guitar to every press conference but I would have also taken Reece Oxford out of the side ahead of the Leicester fixture.

The 16-year-old was superb at Arsenal and that was always going to be detrimental to his immediate future – everyone would have been expecting the same from the lad.

He had played in a similar role in the first leg against Astra and did not set the world alight and he would have benefited from being taken out of the spotlight having been talked about ever since that Arsenal performance.

Had the hosts raced into a two-goal lead, Bilic could have eased Oxford in to gain more experience and even more confidence. Instead he replaced the teen at half-time and, even though he said he could have taken off a host of players, it was Oxford who was hauled off – that will be a little damaging.

Obiang was great when he came on. He was busy and wanted the ball. He will surely start against Bournemouth on Saturday with Oxford on the bench – a move that has come a week too late.