VARDY REACHES CENTURY OF GOALS TO LIFT LEICESTER
IN the week when the city’s inhabitants were told to re-enter isolation, Leicester’s football team and talisman Jamie Vardy finally emerged from what has felt like their own post-restart lockdown.
Five games in and they now have a victory — and with it Vardy has his 100th Premier League goal, not that the locals were able to toast this belated triumph.
Rodgers believes the win would have given the city a timely lift.
‘When you see the rest of the country open up, it’s been very difficult,’ he said. ‘The city deserves huge credit for adhering to what
the government have asked. So if we can give them a boost by winning a game of football then that is a responsibility we assume.
‘Hopefully they can enjoy that amidst all the other issues there are in the city at the moment.’
While the pubs remain dry in Leicester, Vardy’s goal drought has been of greater concern to Rodgers of late.
He has not even looked like scoring since football returned last month and, in the seconds before he brought relief to that barren run, there was another example of his recent struggle, falling over when in on goal from goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel’s long punt.
Vardy was just getting back to his feet when Palace defender Mamadou Sakho attempted a Cruyff turn before slipping, allowing Harvey Barnes to steal in and cross for his team-mate to tap into an empty net for his landmark goal.
The former England striker added a second in injury-time with a trademark burst and dinked finish over the keeper.
Rodgers said: ‘To score 100 goals is a phenomenal achievement, to come into the Premier League at the late stage he has and be so prolific. It’s an honour to work with such a top striker.
‘But it’s been hard for him recently because he hasn’t had too many chances.
‘I had a chat with him yesterday and told him to get back to what he’s good at as there is never a lost cause with Jamie. At his best he hunts everything down. He is a catalyst for the team.’
Sakho, though, had gift-wrapped Vardy’s first and that mistake was symptomatic of a second-half Palace performance that lacked energy and concentration.
The road signs on the approach to Leicester advised that only ‘essential travel’ was permitted into the city, and it looked as if Palace’s players did not deem this fixture necessary at times. In fairness, perhaps that is a by-product of being safe in mid-table.
Roy Hodgson’s men were denied their customary morning walk because of the lockdown restrictions, but at least a few of them enjoyed a stroll here. The Eagles boss thought otherwise, but did pay tribute to Vardy.
‘I’ve always admired him as a striker,’ said Hodgson. ‘He is top-class. Getting to the 100-goal mark is quite an achievement.’
It is, of course, fashionable for the first half to expire goalless of late, but Leicester and Palace between them could not even manage a shot on target in the opening 45 minutes.
Palace have scored the fewest first-half goals in the division and the closest they came here was a Luka Milivojevic free-kick that shaved the angle of post and crossbar. At the other end, Leicester defender James Justin did connect flush with the woodwork from 20 yards and Kelechi Iheanacho was guilty of heading wide from just six yards out.
The striker made up for that when turning in from similar range on 49 minutes, climaxing an impressive attack in which Marc Albrighton and Ayoze Perez had combined to free Youri Tielemans, who provided the most teasing of deliveries for Iheanacho to finish.
Vardy then got his double to ensure the back-page headlines belonged to him, and that is a welcome distraction in these parts.