Pain inflicted in injury time as Barkley breaks derby deadlock
LATE STRIKE PREVENTS FIRST GOALLESS DRAW OF SEASON
LEICESTER City were hit with a late sucker-punch as Ross Barkley’s added-time strike condemned them to another home defeat against Aston Villa.
After such a promising start to the campaign, City were approaching the Midlands derby on the back of a 3-0 humbling by West Ham, and Brendan Rodgers’ side again came up short at the King Power Stadium, but in more dramatic fashion.
A tight affair filled with good football but little goalmouth action looked like being the first goalless draw of the Premier League season.
But Villa loan man Barkley, praised by Rodgers ahead of the game, delivered a fatal late blow from range. Right now, the King Power Stadium is not a fortress.
That is partly because of the bluntness of the attack, which, without Jamie Vardy is not nearly as threatening.
Still the injury problems that threatened to leave City seriously depleted were not as bad as first feared. Vardy, Caglar Soyuncu and Daniel Amartey missed out, joining Ricardo Pereira and Wilfred Ndidi on the sidelines, but Jonny Evans and Dennis Praet both overcame their problems to start, while Wes Morgan and James Maddison made the bench.
In place of the injured few, in came Kelechi Iheanacho to lead the line, and summer recruit Wesley Fofana.
A home clash against a side that only just survived relegation, on
paper, sounds like the ideal match to bring in a teenage defender for his debut. But this is a very different Villa side to the one that City thumped 4-0 in the final match before lockdown in March.
They came into the fixture on the back of an astonishing 7-2 victory over reigning champions Liverpool, and as the only team in England’s top four tiers with a 100 per cent record.
But Fofana looked right at home and was the stand-out performer for City in a goalless first half.
His first act was to step out of the back-line and intercept a pass to Ollie Watkins, and it only got better from there. He was disciplined in his positioning, and in the right place to block and head away, while his passing was excellent, the young Frenchman routinely picking out team-mates between the lines with precise forward balls.
The City front trio of Iheanacho, Ayoze Perez and Harvey Barnes regularly received the ball in good positions in the first period, and
while there was plenty of intricate moves in Villa’s half, there were few chances.
The best City opportunity fell to marauding right-back Timothy Castagne. Iheanacho, composed and strong in his hold-up play, spread the ball to the Belgian, who was denied on the angle by Emiliano Martinez.
Two minutes later, Iheanacho tested Villa’s new goalkeeper with a curling effort from 18 yards. It was held comfortably.
Jack Grealish is the man to keep quiet and, for the most of the first half, City did just that. But the Villa skipper did escape down the left once and cut the ball back to Trezeguet, whose effort trundled inches wide under pressure from James Justin.
There was little else of note in the first 45 minutes, but for a swathe of yellow cards issued by referee Jon Moss, including one to Matty Cash who cynically pulled Harvey Barnes’ shorts down to stop him sprinting away.
The first two chances of the second period came from set-pieces. Perez eventually brought down a half-cleared free-kick and struck through the bodies, a deflection taking it wide.
At the other end, Ezri Konsa met a corner and nodded just wide, with City continuing to look susceptible from crosses into the box.
As the hour mark approached, Villa looked on top for the first time, with Grealish increasingly influential. But strong defensive work across the back kept the visitors at bay, and it was City testing the goalkeeper, Youri Tielemans’ deflected drive saved well down low by Martinez.
Villa chances did come. An unmarked Douglas Luiz was teed up on the edge of the area, but he struck straight at Schmeichel, and then Justin blocked Watkins’ effort.
As the game opened up, Maddison and Hamza Choudhury were introduced, along with Islam Slimani, making his first City appearance since January 2018, a run of 1,006 days.
They didn’t help. In fact, it only gave more impetus to Villa.
Bertrand Traore headed a chance straight at Schmeichel as Villa continued to find plenty of room on the counter.
The space afforded to the visitors contributed to the last-gasp goal. City stood off Barkley, who carried the ball towards the box without any pressure placed on him. Invited to shoot, the England international did just that, arrowing a strike into the bottom corner.
There was no time for City to reply, and the defeat leaves them nursing three straight home defeats in all competitions, failing to score in any, ahead of the start of the Europa League campaign on Thursday.
LATE WINNER: Securing Ross Barkley’s services on loan from Chelsea always seemed like a shrewd piece of business and so it proved at the King Power Stadium last night
NO WAY THROUGH: Villa repel a James Maddison free kick
WAITING GAME: Islam Slimani reappeared after 1,006 days in the wilderness, while defender Wesley Fofana made his debut