West Ham 3 Leeds 1: Whites on brink of relegation as Rice, Bowen and Lanzini secure comfortable Hammers win
WEST HAM came from behind to deal Leeds a crushing blow in their survival fight.
Goals from captain Declan Rice, winger Jarrod Bowen and midfielder Manuel Lanzini also made it a miserable afternoon for former Hammers boss Sam Allardyce on his return to east London.
For the second game in a row Big Sam’s team threw away the lead and they are now destined for a final day shootout in a bid to stay up.
They remain third from bottom and two points behind Everton and one point above second bottom Leicester.
Only one of the three teams will be in the Premier League next season and Leeds must win at Tottenham to do so.
Allardyce managed West Ham between 2011 and 2015 and was always deeply unpopular with the fans for his perceived direct style of football.
He has now lost all six of his games against his old club since leaving.
And the manager with the big reputation for saving clubs from the drop is now looking doomed to suffer only his second Premier League relegation as a manager.
He previously took West Brom down in 2021.
Allardyce admitted before kick off that he needed victory in both remaining games to stand a fighting chance of staying up.
And he looked to be getting the message across when Rodrigo volleyed his team ahead on 17 minutes.
The Spaniard was left unguarded to turn home a huge throw-in from Weston Mckennie to give Leeds a great start.
West Ham’s legs looked heavy from the exertion of reaching the Europa Conference League final on Thursday in Amsterdam against AZ Alkmaar.
But just as against Newcastle last weekend they were unable to build on the early advantage, even against the hungover Hammers, and Rice brought his team level 15 minutes later.
The West Ham captain also cashed in on slack marking to crash home a deep cross from Bowen at the far post.
It is almost certainly Rice’s final game at the London Stadium for West Ham amid intense interest from Arsenal who are ready to pay £95million for him this summer.
It was six years to the day since he made his debut for the club and he has grown from academy graduate to become the heart and soul of a team which also flirted with relegation for much of this season while going great guns in Europe.
Sub Lanzini sealed the victory with his first touch of the ball, turning in a clever cut back from Lucas Paqueta in second half added time.
Then Rice missed the chance to finish the day with his second and West Ham’s fourth but Leeds will still be reeling from this result.
Leeds’ keeper Joel Robles ended the afternoon sitting by his post appearing to fight back tears as he pondered the consequences of his team’s collapse.
West Ham’s number one Lukasz Fabianksi postponed celebrations with his own team mates to console his opposite number.
Here's how the action unfolded at the London Stadium.