Stat Attack: All you need to know about West Ham 4-1 Leicester

A brace from Michail Antonio saw him become West Ham’s record Premier League goalscorer on the same evening that the Irons claimed top spot on goals scored.

Back in front of a packed London Stadium for the first time since the Covid-19 pandemic began, the hosts took control from the very start and gained a deserved lead in the 26th minute.

Said Benrahma set up Pablo Fornals who made no mistake and raised the roof in East London.

Leicester’s task got even more difficult five minutes before the break as a VAR check spotted a rash challenge from Ayoze Perez on the opening scorer Fornals, one that Michael Oliver had initially missed.

The Spaniard was shown a straight red card and the Foxes had a mountain to climb in the second half.

Provider turned goalscorer in the 56th minute when Benrahma doubled West Ham’s lead after a defensive error from Caglar Soyuncu.

Youri Tielemans scrambled a goal back for Leicester with 20 minutes left to play, which would have made the dying stages interesting if it had not have been for Antonio.

The West Ham No9 took centre stage with two goals in the final 10 minutes, the first of which took him above Paolo Di Canio to the top of their all-time Premier League goalscoring ranks.

For the second and the Irons’ fourth, he superbly took control of Vladimir Coufal’s cross from the right flank before poking beyond Kasper Schmeichel.

After scoring his record-breaking goal, Antonio, 31, celebrated with a cardboard cutout of himself, before kissing it and throwing it to the floor, and the former Nottingham Forest forward revealed all after the game.

He joked: “I’ve not been celebrating lately because of VAR, so I thought I had to make it special.

“The celebration was Save The Last Dance, the lift from the end.

“That would have been proper embarrassing if it was ruled out by VAR.

“You always see me smiling, so you’d probably see me laughing as well.”

On West Ham’s chances this season, Antonio added: “We’ve got the squad, and consistency and all we can do is keep getting the points.

“We’ve never been top of the table in my seven years here so I’ll enjoy that.”

Brendan Rodgers suffered his fifth Premier League defeat against David Moyes, more losses than he has suffered against any other manager in the division.

West Ham ended the day top of the Premier League for just the second time in their history, last doing so on August 22, 2006.

Ayoze Perez’s red card ended a run of 39 Premier League games without a sending-off for Leicester.

Pablo Fornals has scored three Premier League goals against Leicester in his career, more than he has bagged against any other side in the top flight.

Said Benrahma has racked up seven goal involvements for West Ham in his last seven Premier League appearances (3 goals, 4 assists).