Two headed goals from set pieces by midfielder Tomas Soucek and defender Angelo Ogbonna helped West Ham United fight back from a goal down to beat Leeds United 2-1 in their Premier League clash at Elland Road on Friday. West Ham goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski conceded a penalty in the second minute when he brought down Patrick Bamford and seemed to have redeemed himself by saving Mateusz Klich’s spot kick. However, after a review by the video assistant referee (VAR) a retake was ordered due to Fabianski leaving his line, and Klich scored at the second attempt. West Ham’s French striker Sebastien Haller had two early chances blocked before Soucek put West Ham level in the 25th minute, out-muscling defender Stuart Dallas to head the ball into the net. Two substitutions at the break briefly gave Leeds a new lease of life but the visitors soon took over again, and they eventually went ahead thanks to Ogbonna`s far-post header from an Aaron Cresswell free kick ten minutes from time. Ogbonna almost turned provider late on, crossing for centre-back partner Fabian Balbuena to head against the far post, and Leeds midfielder Rodrigo almost made them pay with a late header of his own, but he couldn`t steer the ball past Fabianski.

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"You look at our set pieces and it’s a massive part of our game, it`s worked again tonight," West Ham left back Cresswell told Sky Sports after his side joined Chelsea as the Premier League's most potent team from dead balls with eight goals each. "We didn`t lose our heads and Angelo Ogbonna stepped up. We have got to keep looking forward but not get too far ahead of ourselves," he added. The win lifts the Hammers to fifth spot in the standings with 20 points after 12 games. Leeds remain in 14th place on 14 points.

Kai Havertz recalls COVID nightmare

Chelsea midfielder Kai Havertz has said that contracting COVID-19 opened his eyes to the debilitating effect the virus can have on people and left him with such severe fatigue that he felt like he had not played soccer before. Germany international Havertz, who joined Chelsea from Bayer Leverkusen during the close season for a reported 71 million pounds, tested positive for the novel coronavirus in November and missed three matches.

The 21-year-old has since recovered and started the London side’s last three games in all competitions but said beating the virus was a tough challenge even for a youngster like him.

"It was like a very bad flu for me so now I know it is very bad for people. Before I sometimes thought, ‘OK it’s not so bad’ but now I get it and I know for older people and people who had illnesses before it can be bad," Havertz told the BBC. "We all have to look out for each other. It was personally hard. When you do nothing for 2-1/2 weeks and then you start training again, you feel like you`ve never played football before. For me it took two to three weeks to get back to 100 percent.

"Now I’ve started three games and I’m feeling good. It takes a lot of time, it took around 1-1/2 months for me to get back but now I think I’m fit again and can start to attack again."

Havertz has started eight games in the Premier League this season scoring once. He netted a hat-trick in his lone League Cup match against Barnsley in September. Chelsea, who are third in the league with 22 points from 11 games, visit Everton on Saturday.