Emery pleads for some patience and Rodgers ignores title talk
leicester City 2 Vardy (68), Maddison (75) arsenal 0
Unai Emery has called for calm as Arsenal head into the international break with one win from seven in all competitions after losing at Leicester City. Jamie Vardy once again proved to be the scourge of the Gunners as he scored his ninth goal in as many appearances in this fixture, before setting up James Maddison to seal a 2-0 victory at the King Power Stadium.
For Arsenal, this was another galling 90 minutes and they now sit eight points off the top four with Emery’s remit to take the club back to the Champions League now looking further away than ever since his appointment last May. Two wins from 10 in the league has seen the pressure mount on Emery’s position with “Emery Out” once again trending on Twitter in the aftermath of the game.
But the beleaguered Spaniard has asked for patience as the international fixtures promise to give him a little respite from the growing criticism.
“For me, as a coach, it’s about continuing stronger and improving with our players,” he said.
“I am speaking with the club to stay calm and to stay patient to improve and recover some confidence.
“I accept all (of the criticism). I accept the applause and I accept it when they criticise us. I know when we win, they are going to be happy and when we lose, they are going to be sad.
“We need to stay calm and also keep improving things. Today we got one step ahead by being together and being strong defensively. But we lost because we were playing a very strong team in a good moment.”
Alexandre Lacazette wasted Arsenal’s best chance early on, rolling a shot wide from six yards.
Maddison’s free-kick flew just over three minutes before the break and Harvey Barnes miscued a header. Fine work from Ricardo Pereira then saw him
cross for Wilfred Ndidi, but his 16-yard effort slammed off the crossbar.
Arsenal then thought they had opened the scoring after 55 minutes when Pierre-emerick Aubameyang converted Sead Kolasinac’s cross, only for the striker to be correctly ruled offside.
But Leicester finally took control with 22 minutes left when Vardy continued his excellent record against the Gunners.
A sweeping Leicester move ended with Youri Tielemans swapping passes with Barnes and Vardy found the corner from 12 yards.
Four minutes later Bernd Leno denied Vardy a second, before Maddison wrapped up the points with 15 minutes remaining.
Pereira fed Vardy and he teed up Maddison to drill in a fine low effort from the edge of the box.
Despite the result and the fact they move second only to his former club Liverpool, Leicester manager Brendan Rodgers refused to put the rampant Foxes into the title picture.
“We are not really thinking about the title race,” he added.
“We are thinking about the development of the team and making them better. I said if we can bring European football here in my time, that would be great.”
leicester city:
Schmeichel 7; Pereira 8, Evans 7, Soyuncu 8, Chilwell 7; Ndidi 8, Perez 7 (Gray 60, 7), Tielemans 7, Maddison 8, Barnes 7 (Praet 74, 6); Vardy 8. Unused subs – Ward, Justin, Morgan, Choudhury, Albrighton.
arsenal:
Leno 6; Chambers 5, Luiz 6, Holding 5 (Pepe 77, 6), Bellerin 5; Torreira 6 (Willock 80, 5), Guendouzi 6, Ozil 5; Lacazette 5, Aubameyang 6. Unused subs – Martinez, Tierney, Papastathopoulos, Martinelli, Saka.