Alfie mauls
AT LIBERTY STADIUM P W D L F A PTS SWANSEA 25 7 3 15 30 54 24 MIDDLESBORO 25 4 10 11 19 27 22 LEICESTER 25 5 6 14 24 42 21 HULL 25 5 5 15 22 49 20 C PALACE 25 5 4 16 32 46 19 SUNDERLAND 25 5 4 16 24 46 19 certain N’Golo Kante. Ten of the starters against Swansea also played in that famous win – Wilfried Ndidi, the £15million man from Genk bought as soon as the most recent transfer window opened in a belated attempt to fill some of the hole that Kante had left.
But Kante’s was not the only absence from Leicester 12 months on. There was an absence of belief; an absence of threat; absence energy.
It was more that once the protective blanket of such a remarkable midfielder’s contribution was removed, it exposed the awful truth. Or was that the awful Huth? Together with Wes Morgan, Robert Huth was trumpeted as a foundation of the Foxes achievements last term.
Now, once again, they look like what they were when they arrived – ageing, crumbling, bargain basement defenders overstretched by their efforts to keep the whole house in order. an of Just three minutes in and the pair were in trouble. A tentative header clear by Morgan was fired back in by Gylfi Sigurdsson and hit his arm. Luckily, it was just close enough to his body to persuade referee Jon Moss not to point to the spot. Swansea dominated possession but then that is the Leicester way. Although Danny Drinkwater, whose long raking passes unlocked so many defences on the counter last season, proved more of a threat to his own goal, flicking the ball just wide of his far post from an inswinging free-kick. These days Leicester seem to be content to land their long balls vaguely in the same postcode as Jamie Vardy and expect the striker to get on with it. Unsurprisingly, his internal Sat Nav cannot take the pressure and, frankly, he looks lost.
Swansea always looked the more dangerous – although try telling that to Tom Carroll, who suffered an agricultural tackle from Huth when the defender once again arrived just a fraction later to a challenge than he would have done last season.
The resulting free-kick was chipped forward and Huth struggled to clear. Federico Fernandez nodded the ball back into the box and Mawson met it with such a thumping volley into the back of the net the impact could be heard at the back of the Liberty Stadium stands. There was still time for things to get