LEICESTER CITY
Premier League, King Power Stadium, Sunday 28 May 2023, 4.30pm
West Ham United’s 2022/23 Premier League season reaches its conclusion at Leicester City on Sunday.
The Hammers make the journey to King Power Stadium hoping to end the top-flight season on a three-match winning streak. A victory in the East Midlands could see us climb to 13th in the final table.
If we do win, the Foxes will be relegated to the EFL Championship. Leicester kick-off in 18th place, two points behind Everton – who host AFC Bournemouth – but with a superior goal difference.
The ground was opened in 2002 and Leicester celebrated their move from nearby Filbert Street by winning promotion to the Premier League at the end of their first season there.
Of course, Leicester’s most-famous recent campaign came in 2015/16, when they shocked the football world by winning the Premier League title under Italian manager Claudio Ranieri.
Brendan Rodgers then led Leicester to FA Cup and FA Community Shield wins in 2021, but things have gone a bit sour since, with Rodgers departing earlier this season following a poor start. Former Aston Villa and Norwich City manager Dean Smith is now in charge and needs a win on Sunday to keep Leicester up.
How to get there…
It takes anything between an hour-and-ten-minutes and an hour-and-a-half to reach Leicester by rail from central London, with regular East Midlands Railway services leaving from both London St Pancras International and London Euston.
From Leicester station, it is around 45-minutes’ walk to the stadium, or you can take a taxi.
If you opt to drive, leave the northbound M1 at Junction 21 and follow the signs for the City Centre for three miles, turn right onto Upperton Road, then take the fifth exit at Liberty Statue Island onto Western Boulevard.
Parking can be purchased prior to the day of the match for £18 per car on the Club’s Filbert Street car park. To book, please call the City Sales Centre on 0344 815 5000 (Option 1). For more information about home matchday parking, please visit https://tickets.lcfc.com/
Where to stay…
Leicester has a wide range of accommodation options available to cater for a variety of tastes and budgets, from recognisable budget and boutique hotels to bed and breakfasts, country house retreats and self-catering rentals.
What to do…
There are lots of attractions in and around Leicester for you to visit over the weekend.
The No1 is the National Space Centre, which has six galleries full of rockets, satellites and meteorites, the UK’s largest domed planetarium, and lots of unique space memorabilia.
Sticking with history, the King Richard III Visitor Centre contains grave site, where his remains were buried for more than 500 years and exhibition about his life, death and one of the greatest archaeological detective stories ever told.
Elsewhere, Tropical Birdland is home to over 250 birds from all over the world, while the Retro Computer Museum contains hundreds of old computers, consoles, games, magazines and software from the 1960s to the 2000s.
What’s happened there before…
West Ham United have enjoyed visits to King Power Stadium in recent seasons, scoring a 3-0 Premier League victory during the COVID-affected 2020/21 season, and a 2-2 draw last term, when Craig Dawson’s late leveller snatched a point.
Prior to that, it was more of a mixed bag, with the Mark Noble-inspired 2-0 win that secured safety in May 2018 the undoubted highlight.
The Irons also went close to becoming one of just two visiting teams to defeat Leicester on home turf during their title-winning 2015/16 campaign, only for Andy Carroll to concede a last-minute penalty, which Leonardo Ulloa converted to deny the Londoners and secure a 2-2 draw.
