FOXES ARE NOW TOP DOGS
Leicester hit summit as Ndidi and Maddison down Chelsea
THERE are few more pleasing sights in English football than Leicester City in full flight. They play brisk, incisive football that brings with it a threat just about every time they have the ball.
Beautifully coached by Brendan Rodgers, the 2016 champions sit top of the Premier League this morning for the second time this season. If they keep key players fit, Leicester can have a say in the destination of this year’s trophy.
Few teams, on the other hand, will be so compliant as desperate, deteriorating Chelsea. Decent enough with the ball, Frank Lampard’s team were quite awful without it.
Chelsea manager Lampard is in trouble, right enough. His team have now lost five of their last eight games in the league and are sliding towards the bottom half of the league table.
That is the kind of fall from grace that an owner like Roman Abramovich
simply will not tolerate for long. Chelsea were a goal down within six minutes here, slack marking from a corner enabling Wilfred Ndidi to score from just outside the penalty area.
That set the tone as Leicester — with Harvey Barnes and Marc Albrighton outstanding — were too slick, clever and purposeful for a Chelsea defensive set-up that lacked organisation and cohesion.
Lampard’s team had their chances and were denied a penalty by VAR just before half-time. Jonny Evans’ foul on Christian Pulisic was shown to have been committed just outside the box.
To make matters worse for Chelsea, they were two down almost immediately as James Maddison finished off a breakaway goal.
Unbeaten in the league in five games prior to this, Leicester started appropriately. Under pressure after an uncertain recent run, so did Chelsea.
Chelsea looked happy enough when they had the ball, moving forwards reasonably well through players like Pulisic and Mason Mount. But when they were out of possession, they looked deeply uncomfortable.
Jamie Vardy remains the quickest player at Leicester but Harvey Barnes is no slouch either and he was immediately dangerous down his flank here.
Having conceded a free kick inside their own half, Chelsea were not awake as it was taken quickly. They managed to clear the ensuing cross for a corner but were then not alive to a quick interchange between Madisson and Albrighton.
The pull-back that reached the unmarked Barnes represented a decent opportunity in itself from 12 yards. But when Barnes miskicked, the ball arrived at Ndidi’s feet outside the penalty area and he lashed it first time past Edouard Mendy with the help of the goalkeeper’s righthand post.
It was a super start and for a while Chelsea didn’t have much of a response. Their midfield players looked utterly lost every time
Leicester turned them around. Before we had even played 20 minutes Maddison had struck the bar from 25 yards, while Albrighton brought a save from Mendy from a similar distance.
Chelsea did carry a threat with the ball, it must be said.
Leicester goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel was worked twice in quick succession midway through the half as he touched a near-post shot from Reece James over the top and punched a Thiago Silva header to safety from the corner that followed.
With Chelsea enjoying some periods of possession, the initiative enjoyed by Leicester was interrupted. Pulisic fed Callum Hudson-Odoi in the 32nd minute and he should have done better than shoot clumsily into the
sidenetting. Then Mount drove towards the heart of the Leicester defence and when he fed Pulisic, Jonny Evans crudely brought the player down. The penalty call appeared beyond doubt, but VAR revealed the challenge to have taken place just outside the area and Mount hoiked the free-kick harmlessly over.
Three minutes later, Leicester were further ahead. A long kick by Schmeichel eventually fell to Albrighton and when his cross drew Antonio Rudiger into an aerial challenge with Vardy, Maddison was left free to sweep the loose ball into the net.
That was a disastrous way for Chelsea to end the half but Leicester deserved their advantage.
A third goal could have arrived early in the second half, another imperious Albrighton cross finding young James Justin unmarked at the far post. His header passed wide when really he should have done a lot better.
Pulisic lost possession in the central third soon after and it was not for the first time. Again Leicester swept forwards as Albrighton found Vardy and he sent Youri Tielemans clear. The Belgian was not quite central but it was still a good chance and Mendy did well to save with his legs.
Between those two opportunities, Chelsea had a couple of their own and that pretty much told the story of the night. Every time they threatened at one end, they soon proved horribly vulnerable at the other.
Both Chelsea chances came from corners. From one, Rudiger rose to head powerfully but straight at Schmeichel and from another, a Leicester leg appeared to divert the ball towards goal. Again, Schmeichel was able to clutch the ball when, in truth, it could have gone anywhere.