West Ham players SLAMMED for defending as if Jamie Vardy was offside only for VAR to declare Leicester goal onside

JAMIE VARDY profited from slow-reacting West Ham defenders to give Leicester the lead in a 3-1 win at the King Power.

The Foxes legend raced through on goal to open the scoring after just 98 seconds but was initially flagged for offside.

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Jamie Vardy opened the scoring against West Ham[/caption]

Vardy was adjudged to be onside after a VAR review

West Ham players protested for offside

Mavrapanos could be seen looking on in vain for an offside flag

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Bilal El Khannouss played Vardy through and the ex-England striker slotted home past Lukasz Fabianski before the flag was raised.

But upon review by VAR, centre-back Konstantinos Mavropanos was shown to be playing Vardy onside.

The centre-back, along with Maximilian Kilman and Aaron Wan-Bissaka were guilty of praying for offside to be called.

All three laboured in their attempts to stop Vardy and Mavropanos in particular looked to be spending more time looking for a flag rather than trying to stop the 37-year-old striker from scoring – much to the anger of fans online.

One said: “The central defence is a big concern, Kilman and Mavropanos look too slow.”

Another fumed: “Killman and Mavropanos have no answer to 37-year old Vardy. Embarrassing.”

One raged: “What is Mavropanos doing, he was counting on VAR there and they didn’t save him.”

Another said: “Bad mistake by Mavropanos. Should have held the line but he dropped back. Really poor.”

It set the tone for another awful display from West Ham that left Julian Lopetegui fighting for his job.

Leicester won the match 3-1.