RAVENOUS FOXES DEVOUR TOOTHLESS TOON
IT is no longer appropriate to describe Leicester City as an outside bet for the top four. Brendan Rodgers’ team are good enough, hungry enough and ruthless enough to shake up the Premier League for the second time in four seasons.
Leicester will not win it this season. They may never do so again. But this is a team with the necessary quality and drive to seriously threaten the ambitions of those established clubs hoping to cross the line behind Liverpool and Manchester City next May.
Does Rodgers have enough depth in his squad to keep this up over the next eight months? A long-term injury to Jamie Vardy, for example, would alter the landscape a little.
But if that doesn’t come — and it didn’t in 2015-16 — then they have a decent chance of going course and distance.
Aided by a Newcastle red card for Isaac Hayden just before halftime, Leicester tore their feeble, troubled opponents apart here yesterday. They were a goal up at the break and four up just after the hour. By the end, a goal in the last minute by Wilfred Ndidi ensured it was five.
The ripples will be felt all the way through the English game. Rodgers stopped short of saying his side were now challengers to Manchester City and his former club Liverpool — who they face at Anfield on Saturday — but he will know that his team are causing anxiety elsewhere.
‘The top two teams are at a really high level,’ said the ex-Celtic boss. ‘Our job is to be as competitive as we can and let’s see where it takes us. The aim when I came was to bring European football and it was a challenge I wanted.’
Steve Bruce, by contrast, accused his Newcastle team of ‘complete surrender’ after they were left looking like serious relegation candidates with the season not yet two months old.
‘We didn’t do enough, especially in the second half, to stop Leicester’s momentum,’ he said. ‘It was nowhere near what was required. With ten men, the one thing you can show is a bit of fight and courage. Too many felt sorry for themselves.’
Some pointed to the red card as a turning point. Hayden probably didn’t mean to hurt Dennis Praet when he thundered in to take the ball and then the man in the 43rd minute. But it was reckless and he had to go.
It is hard to escape the feeling Leicester would have won comfortably anyway. Newcastle are not good enough and there is a relentlessness about Leicester’s play that is classic Rodgers.
Their opening goal was superb. Picking the ball up in his own half, right-back Ricardo Pereira played it up to Ayoze Perez before taking the return and breaking in to the Newcastle half.
When he shot from 25 yards, the ball went like a bullet across the turf, low to Martin Dubravka’s right and into the only part of the goal the Newcastle keeper did not have covered.
Leicester’s movement began to wear Newcastle down. Then, just before half-time, Hayden left the party. On the sidelines, Bruce looked like a man who feared the worse may be about to come.
Twenty minutes of Leicester dominance at the start of the second period ended the contest.
Dubravka should have saved from Vardy when he drove a shot under him from an angle in the 54th minute and then Newcastle defender Fabian Schar surrendered possession and watched as Praet’s low cross was deflected in by Paul Dummett.
Leicester’s fourth in the 64th minute was beautiful. The cross from Marc Albrighton was reminiscent of much of what he did in the title-winning season and now, just as back then, Vardy was not going to miss with his head from five yards.
The fact Leicester didn’t score their fifth until the closing stages was a surprise. The difference in desire between the teams was palpable. Ndidi eventually turned on a Ben Chilwell cross to score neatly across Dubravka with his right foot and at full-time five felt about right.
Liverpool will face an authentic challenge at Anfield this weekend. LEICESTER CITY (4-1-4-1): Schmeichel 6; Ricardo 8, Soyuncu 7, Evans 7, Chilwell 8; Ndidi 7; Perez 7 (Gray 83), Praet 7 (Choudhury 78), Tielemans 8, Barnes 7 (Albrighton 57); Vardy 9.
Subs not used: Justin, Morgan, Ward, Iheanacho. Booked: Vardy. NEWCASTLE UNITED (4-4-1-1): Dubravka 5; Krafth 6, Lascelles 6, Schar 5, Dummett 6; Almiron 5 (Yedlin 73), Hayden 5, Longstaff 6, Atsu 6; Muto 6 (Sung-Yeung 43); Joelinton 6 (Carroll 62). Subs not used: Saint-Maxim, Fernandez, Manquillo, Yedlin, Darlow. Booked: Schar. Sent off: Hayden. Man of the Match: Jamie Vardy. Referee: Craig Pawson. Attendance: 32,168.