Maddison and Barnes inspire Leicester to emphatic win over Spurs
Antonio Conte returned to the technical area for this game under strict instructions to take it easy after gallbladder surgery. But this match would have tested the stress levels of anyone afforded the dubious privilege of managing Tottenham.
A week after beating Premier League champions Manchester City, Spurs were on the end of a pounding, just three days before they return to Champions League action away to Milan, as Leicester backed up their exhilarating recovery away to Aston Villa with another four-goal display.
Even with their injury problems, Rodrigo Bentancur, their goalscorer, limping off with a knee injury in the second half, Spurs could not have many excuses for falling away so badly after leading. Cristian Stellini, Conte’s assistant, admitted Spurs “have to be better mentally” when following up the emotional and physical exertions of beating City.
“It happened last season after we beat City, we lost at Burnley,” Stellini said. “To be consistent is a long process. You have to be better mentally. It’s about desire, and the ability to recover the energy levels after a game like City where maybe you used all the energy you had. It’s like having a bottle and how much you can refill this bottle. To make this bottle bigger we have to work.”
Leicester, refreshed by their positive January transfer window, are now six points clear of the relegation zone as goals from Nampalys Mendy – a late replacement for the injured Youri Tielemans – James Maddison, Kelechi Iheanacho and Harvey Barnes brought them this free-wheeling win.
Staying fifth, Tottenham may have won their three previous games but this was a discombobulated display. Missing Hugo Lloris, with a knee injury, Yves Bissouma, with a fractured ankle, and the suspended Cristian Romero, did not help at the King Power Stadium, where Pedro Porro, after joining on loan from Sporting, endured a trying debut at right wing-back.
Spurs are winless in the last seven games without Lloris, and Fraser Forster did not cover himself in glory when going down slowly for the last two goals.
Leicester may have four-fifths of a new backline compared to last year but they still do not convince when it comes to defending corners. From Ivan Perisic’s first delivery, Victor Kristiansen cleared from under his own bar before punching the air passionately. Was that in relief ?
From the ensuing corner, however, it was the recent £17m signing from Copenhagen who played Bentancur onside and then inadvertently played the ball back for the Uruguayan to nudge home.
Leicester were soon level. Timothy Castagne’s glancing header from Maddison’s corner was cleared by Bentancur to the far corner of the penalty area. Sprinting in, Mendy blasted a shot from his dreams into the near top corner.
Within two minutes, Leicester were ahead. Wout Faes’ brilliant tackle on Harry Kane just in the Spurs half encouraged Iheanacho to progress to the edge of the area. He chose the perfect moment to lay the ball off for Maddison to calmly slot the ball in at the near post. It was the playmaker’s 10th goal involvement in his last 10 league games.
In first-half stoppage time, a channel ball from Harry Souttar left Iheanacho in a one-on-one duel with Eric Dier. The Spurs defender held him up to a degree, allowing his teammates to get back, but Iheanancho was allowed time to get the ball out of his feet and drill a left-footed shot into the corner.
Only Southampton and Bournemouth, the bottom two, have conceded more than Spurs’ 18 goals in first halves this season.
A niggly second half was lit up by Barnes’s finishing. A couple of toes offside, VAR adjudged, as he ran onto Iheanacho’s pass before curling home in one instance, he finally got the fourth goal Leicester deserved when weaving in to score from the edge of the area.
“It was a very good performance from the players,” Brendan Rodgers, the Leicester manager, said. “With the front three Spurs have, big talents, for us to be as brave as they were, to press the game, was everything I want from the team. We were strong, aggressive and, with the ball, really fluid. So it was a great day all round.”