West Ham United manager Manuel Pellegrini has stressed that his side were denied a win by a poor offside call by the linesman against Leicester City, after a 2-2 draw at the London Stadium.
The Hammers dominated the ball and looked the more dangerous side in the first half against Brendan Rodgers’ men. But they failed to create many clear cut opportunities. A few half chances were squandered and the Hammers showed a lack of composure in the final third.
But the goal came for the home side when Mark Noble played a delicious ball from the left-hand side. Michail Antonio met the ball inside the box and slotted in a brilliant header past Kasper Schmeichel’s outstretched left hand to give the lead to Pellegrini’s side.
Leicester seemed to be in the ascendency in the second half but were struggling to create many clear cut opportunities despite playing some good football.
However, their pressure paid off and Leicester equalised when Jamie Vardy met Ben Chilwell’s low cross and deflected the ball past Lukasz Fabianski in the 66th minute.
Wilfried Ndidi came within whisker giving the lead to Leicester a few minutes later when his powerful side-footed effort was just wide of the post.
West Ham threw on Lucas Perez in place of Mark Arnautovic towards the end and he made a difference on the pitch.
The former Arsenal man followed up on Pedro Obiang’s shot, which hit the post, and tapped it home to give the lead to the home side in the 80th minute.
Perez could have sealed the points in the 90th minute, but he was adjudicated offside, when it looked like he was in an onside position.
And the Hammers could not hold on to their lead as Leicester youngster Harvey Barnes scored his first goal after Youri Tielemans spotted his run and picked him out perfectly.
The 21-year-old settled himself and calmly slotted the ball past low beyond Fabianski into the West Ham goal.
Pellegrini insisted that his team were robbed of a win by a poor call from the linesman in the 90th minute when Perez was adjudicated offside.
He feels his team played well enough for a win but admits that conceding twice was an issue.
The West Ham boss told BBC’s Match of the Day: "I think we deserved more than a draw.
"We should have been leading 3-1 but it was a mistake of the linesman.
"Yes, I've seen the goal again and he was one meter onside.
"There is nothing you can do about that.
"Next season when we have VAR it can be fairer.
"We generally played well but you cannot concede two goals."
West Ham will be back in action next Saturday when they will travel across London to take on Tottenham Hotspur.
