West Ham travelled to the King Power Stadium to face Leicester City, who themselves, are coming off two defeats in-a-row. Even though the Hammers lost to Tottenham Hotspurs last time out, Pellegrini believed his side could have taken all three points. 

Fabian Balbuena scored his first goal in Claret and Blue, from close range on the 30th minute mark but a horrible late tackle from Mark Noble on Wilfried Ndidi saw a red card with the Hammers playing for 53 minutes one player down. 

The Chilean speaking straight after the game, on BT Sports, describes the mood after the game was not happy due to the Foxes equaliser in the closing minutes of the game. Ndidi's shot took a wicked deflection off Balbuena and missed a chance to win the game, as Angelo Ogbonna headed wide over the crossbar, Pellegrini said,

“The mood in the dressing room was not that we’ve got a good point,” he said. “Playing away with one player less for 60 minutes of the game, most of the time you are happy [with a point], but not in this case because we were very unlucky with the goal that Leicester scored and after the goal we had another opportunity to score.

Full of praise for his players, their professionalism and mental strength, playing with one man down for so long and nearly clinching all three points, Pellegrini offers his insight, saying

“I’m very proud of the way the team is playing, the way the team is thinking as a big team, and the mentality of the players is to try to win away."

Late tackle sees red card

A sliding late tackle from Noble put more pressure on the East London side, as they took their lead into the half-time break. Many have noted that if the Hammers had their full quoter of players they would off definitely taken all three points back to Rush Green. Pellegrini echo’s the thought and about the red card commenting,

“When it was 11 v 11, we were playing really well and after that we defended very well.

“I haven’t seen the red card back yet so I can’t give my opinion, but I always respect the decision of the referee.

Spirited performance

Pellegrini admires the fight and spirit the Hammers showed in the second half, adding: 

“Playing with that fight in the second half was the only way, because we were winning 1-0, we had one player less and we had nine players out injured so we didn’t have too many chances to make changes from the bench."

Some of the Hammers top performers were Balubena and twenty-year-old Grady Diangana who was making his full debut, whilst goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski had another excellent game between the sticks. Pellegrini, however, praised all of his players:

“The players who came in did very well also, and we defended with order and organisation.”

Next up for the Hammers

Pellegrini and his men entertain Spurs in the Carabao Cup this Tuesday night at the London Stadium and hopefully get a result, which they richly deserved the last time these two-side met in the League.

Burnley are the next side to visit the Captial on 3rd November, sitting one place below the Hammers in 14th but face Chelsea on Sunday. Many have said that this and the away fixture against Huddersfield Town the following Saturday is where West Ham could pick up six points.