Anything you Kane do.. I can do better
VARDY GIVES HARRY A TASTE OF OWN MEDICINE
JAMIE VARDY gave Harry a Kaning as Leicester beat Tottenham at their own game.
For weeks, football has applauded the England captain for his assists, goals and goalline clearances.
This time, the Leicester striker claimed one of each as Tottenham fell totally flat.
Jose Mourinho has made no apologies for parking the bus this season – at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium it seemed to have stalled.
The counter- attacking style employed against Manchester City, Chelsea and Liverpool had finally caught up with them and nobody is better equipped than Leicester to take advantage of a team sat back on their heels – aside from Tottenham themselves.
Nothing quite seemed to click for Spurs. Kane, right, and Son Heung- Min’s union looked set to flicker into life but for once the latter looked goal- shy – looking to find colleagues when Kane set him up with decent half- chances. Only towards the end of the first half did things begin to warm up a little.
Kane had a 43rd- minute header cleared off the line by Vardy, whose curling shot moments later gave Hugo Lloris his first real test.
Then, out of nowhere Serge Aurier regressed to the player he was a season or so ago – clattering into the back of Wesley Fofana on the corner of the penalty area with no sense of any danger in Leicester’s build- up. It took a VAR intervention but referee Craig Pawson eventually pointed to the spot and Vardy hammered home the kick. Mourinho sent on Gareth Bale at half- time but he is a shadow of the matchwinner of old. And to add to the Spurs manager’s problems, Giovani Lo Celso limped off with a hamstring injury soon after. That said, it was still Leicester doing most of the running.
A long ball over the top was controlled beautifully by James Maddison and fired past Lloris, but those VAR crosshairs penalised Maddison for leaning too far forward into an offside position. Tottenham seemed to lack the energy to take advantage of their reprieve and a simple deep cross found Vardy at the far post. Toby Alderweireld was powerless to prevent his header across goal from hitting his thigh and deflecting into the back of the net in the 59th minute.
Few could argue Leicester deserved their good fortune.
Kane tested Kasper Schmeichel late on and a Son shot was pawed over by the Denmark goalkeeper.
Leicester took the mantle of Liverpool’s closest challengers after a sixth away win in seven games this season.
Spurs have a Carabao Cup tie at Stoke before their chase resumes at Wolves on December 27.
Having started the season with a hectic programme because of the Europa League, Tottenham will hope Santa brings them a second wind. TOTTENHAM ( 4- 3- 3): Lloris 7; Aurier 4 ( Winks 64, 6), Alderweireld 6, Dier 6, Reguilon 5; Sissoko 6, Ndombele 5 ( Bale 46, 5), Hojbjerg 6; Lo Celso 6 ( Moura 49, 5), Kane 6, Son 6.
LEICESTER ( 4- 1- 4- 1): Schmeichel 7; Castagne 6 ( Amartey 60, 6), Fofana 7, Evans 7, Justin 6; Ndidi 7; Albrighton 7, Tielemans 7, Maddison 8, Barnes 7 ( Praet 84); Vardy 8 ( Iheanacho 88). Goals: Vardy 45 pen, Alderweireld 59 og.
JOSE MOURINHO questioned Tottenham’s attitude after Jamie Vardy dealt a blow to their Premier League title hopes.
Vardy claimed Leicester had “nailed it” as his penalty and an own goal by Toby Alderweireld were enough for Brendan Rodgers’ side to leapfrog their hosts into second, four points behind Liverpool.
It left Tottenham with just a point from their past three games after they had threatened to be the ones to push the defending champions.
“We started badly,” said the Spurs boss. “The first 20 minutes was a poor performance, some empty spots in terms of pressing, attitude, recovering the ball. I didn’t like at all. We changed during the first half, improved a lot, had a period of domination and then the penalty.” Serge Aurier clattered unnecessarily into Wesley Fofana to start Tottenham’s