Hammers nail Pellegrini after Foxes loss; Solskjaer delighted
Leicester’s Demarai Gray scores a goal against West Ham United during their EPL match on Saturday. Reuters
A run of just two wins in 14 games, including seven defeats in their last nine league matches, saw patience run out with the 66-year-old former Real Madrid and Manchester City boss.
“It is with great disappointment that we’ve had to make this decision,” West Ham joint-chairman David Sullivan said in a club statement.
“Manuel is a gentleman and it has been a real pleasure to work with someone of his calibre.
“However, it has become clear that a change is required to get the club back on track in line with our ambitions this season.
“We felt it was necessary to act now in order to give the new manager as much time as possible to try and achieve that goal.”
West Ham host Bournemouth, who sit one point and one place above them in the table, on January 1.
Pellegrini has failed to provide enough of a return on a significant transfer spend over the past 18 months with over £100 million ($130 million) splashed on the likes of Felipe Anderson, Sebastien Haller, Pablo Fornals, Andriy Yarmolenko and Issa Diop. West Ham overcame a difficult start to finish 10th in Pellegrini’s first campaign in charge and began this season brightly. After an impressive 2-0 win over Manchester United in late September the Irons sat fifth in the table.
However, that was their last win at home and they have tumbled down the table over the past three months.
“Playing at home, that’s where we should be getting the most points and the manager is obviously disappointed with the performances,” said goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski, who has been sorely missed through injury over the past few months.
“For some while we’ve not managed to get anything playing at home.”
Fabianski saved an early penalty on his return to the side on Saturday from Demarai Gray, but could still not inspire a turnaround despite Leicester making nine changes. Jamie Vardy was among those missing due to the birth of his daughter, but Gray made amends for his earlier miss by scoring the winner after Pablo Fornals had cancelled out Kelechi Iheanacho’s opener for the visitors.
Meanwhile, Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford scored late in each half as Manchester United moved into fifth place in the Premier League with an impressive 2-0 win at Burnley.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s men have responded positively to a disappointing 2-0 defeat to then bottom-of-the-table Watford less than a week ago to head into the new year with fresh belief they can secure a return to the Champions League next season.
“In the first half I thought we were very good. We controlled it and dominated it,” said Solskjaer.
“Second half of course there will be a couple more incidents in your box because they are throwing the ball into it, but it was great defending.”
If United are to achieve their goal of finishing in the top four, Martial and Rashford will be key and they again provided the goals for the Red Devils in a game of few clear-cut chances.
There were also positives for Solskjaer at the back as his side ended a club-record 14-match run without a Premier League clean sheet.
“We’re a team who haven’t been conceding many chances, but set-pieces and other basic things have been letting us down,” said Harry Maguire, who United spent a world record £80 million ($104 million) for a defender on in August to try and ease their defensive problems.
Burnley have not beaten United since 2009 and never looked likely to spring a surprise.
Agencies
English Premier League results on Saturday:
Norwich 2 (Vrancic 18, Aurier 61-og) Tottenham 2 (Eriksen 55, Kane 83-pen)
West Ham 1 (Fornals 45) Leicester 2 (Iheanacho 40, Gray 56)
