SILENT BUT SO DEADLY
Pepe’s mad dash sparks Foxes’ rout
JAMIE VARDY scored twice in just 17 minutes last night – after going 644 minutes without a goal.
The Leicester striker, who had failed to find the net since December, came off the bench to shine as the Foxes thrashed Aston Villa at the King Power Stadium.
Harvey Barnes also scored twice to leave Dean Smith’s side in real danger of dropping out of the Premier League.
HE’S back! That man Jamie Vardy broke a nine-game goal duck to push Aston Villa into even deeper trouble.
And then just for good measure he added a second.
Vardy scored less than four minutes after coming off the bench to put Leicester 2-0 in front and take his season’s tally to 18 in the 63rd minute and 16 minutes later he fired home again.
He had rattled in 17 a few days before Christmas and has had a long wait to get back in the groove.
But he made no mistake from the spot after Tyrone Mings nudged a Harvey Barnes cross out of his path.
Vardy rammed the ball past Pepe
Reina with a shot straight down the middle. The second came as he beat Reina on his near post from inside the left edge of the box.
It wasn’t Reina’s night. He had no choice but to take total responsibility for the first-half calamity which saw Barnes open the scoring.
And then, five minutes from time, Barnes drove home the fourth.
Three successive league defeats had seen Villa drop into the bottom three but victory would have seen them leapfrog back out.
For Leicester, revenge for their Carabao Cup semi-final defeat to Villa was something of a side issue.
Brendan Rodgers’ men have suffered something of a slump by their own high standards to put their claims for a Champions League spot next season under pressure.
One win in their last seven league games had seen a huge gap between them and fifth spot reduced to just five points.
Villa carved out the first chance when Jack Grealish went on a searing run but Conor Hourihane just could not get the connection required.
But Leicester took the initiative
and could easily have gone ahead twice with headed opportunities.
First, Jonny Evans met a James Maddison corner with a powerful downward header but Reina made a great save down at his post in the 10th minute.
Five minutes later, Caglar Soyuncu rose perfectly to get to Maddison’s flag-kick but was left holding his head in his hands in frustration as he sent it flying way over the top.
Villa survived strong home claims for a penalty in the 23rd minute when Frederic Guilbert sent James
Justin tumbling in the box with a borderline challenge.
Then, in the 33rd minute, Leicester really should have taken the lead when Ricardo Pereira found Kelechi Iheanacho on the edge of the six-yard box.
The Nigeria striker got too thick a touch on his glancing header and ended up screwing it wide.
But seven minutes later Leicester went ahead after an absolute howler from Reina gifted them the lead.
The Spanish goalkeeper raced out of his goal to try and intercept a Marc
Albrighton long ball that he had no chance of reaching.
Barnes got there first, nipped it past him and then fired it into the net as Villa’s players looked on in horror.
LEICESTER (4-1-4-1): Schmeichel 7; Pereira 7, Evans 8, Soyuncu 8, Justin 8; Ndidi 7 (Mendy 83); Praet 7 (Tielemans 76), Maddison 8, Albrighton 7, BARNES 8; Iheanacho 5 (Vardy 60, 7). Subs: Ward, Morgan, Perez, Fuchs.
ASTON VILLA (4-1-4-1): Reina 5; Guilbert 6, Mings 7, Engels 6, Targett 6; Nakamba 6; Douglas Luiz 6, Hourihane 6 (Davis 67, 5), Elmohamady 6 (El Ghazi 63, 6), GREALISH 7; Samatta 6. Subs: Nyland, Taylor, Drinkwater, Konsa, Trezeguet.
REFEREE: Michael Oliver 7.