Who needs Vardy as Foxes hit four
Ranieri’s men look like champions elect after four-goal blitz
Ahelicopter was waiting to take leicester’s players to the professional Footballers’ Association dinner in london last night. they are flying, this team, and in more ways than one.
individual honours may soon be followed by an even bigger prize, one shared by the entire club. leicester are five points away from winning the league title, perhaps even closer if their sole rivals, tottenham, drop points.
Mauricio pochettino will no doubt have watched this game yesterday hoping for another stumble only to find the pressure shifted back on to his shoulders, and in emphatic fashion. if his tottenham team fail to beat West Bromwich Albion at home tonight, leicester could even win the league at old trafford next Sunday.
it will be a tall order, but claudio ranieri’s players have time on their side. For tottenham, it is running out. the loss of Jamie Vardy, through suspension, was seen as a potential game-changer. instead, leicester recorded their biggest league win since a 5-1 dismantling of Queens park rangers on the final day of last season.
there were two goals for Vardy’s replacement, leonardo Ulloa, an opener after 10 minutes to settle the nerves and the two-goal half-time lead was leicester’s biggest since August. ‘Four-nil to the one-man team,’ crowed the locals, although only a fool would have leicester pegged as that this season. they are the ultimate 11-man team, plus extras, a fact summed up by the fourth goal that included contributions from all three of ranieri’s substitutes.
it will be harder against Manchester United without Vardy if the Football Association decide to increase his ban, of course, but leicester have options. they can play on the counter, settle for a draw and still stay in command. it is tottenham who must push, push, push all the way to the last day of the season.
‘leicester city — we’re coming for you,’ their fans teased last week. Yesterday brought the perfect response. ‘tottenham hotspur — we’re waiting for you,’ leicester sang, cockily. in other words, catch us if you can.
tottenham have been left hoping for long shots. here it was the thought that leicester might need Vardy to defeat an unremarkable Swansea team or that having nothing to play for — even manager Francesco Guidolin will be gone at the end of the season — might allow their opponents to attack with freewheeling, ambitious football. Wrong, and wrong again.
Vardy was not required, and Swansea were neat at times but generally hopeless. there wasn’t even a rogue refereeing performance to even it up as happened last week, Mark clattenburg being no Jonathan Moss and taking charge of the game without a moment’s controversy.
Vardy watched on from an executive box but at times seemed almost distracted, checking his mobile phone as the game unfolded, unfazed by the importance of the occasion.
the noise levels inside the ground were as deafening as they had ever been, but this was the only indication that this match was different to the others.
From the moment riyad Mahrez, who later stepped off the helicopter to collect his pFA player of the Year award, opened the scoring, leicester’s three points were never in doubt. From then on, everyone in the stadium knew the game was safe.
if there was unfinished business between Mahrez and Swansea captain Ashley Williams before this match, it is fair to say it is over now. the pair clashed in December when leicester won 3-0 at the liberty Stadium, and Williams took exception to a Mahrez foul in the penalty area.
At the end of the game, he attempted to follow Mahrez on to the leicester team bus to continue their conversation, but if he planned to adopt that hoariest of clichés by doing his talking on the pitch here, his opening statement proved far from eloquent.
pressured to clear by a hasty back-pass from leroy Fer, Williams succeeded only in hitting a sloppy hoof straight at the Algerian playmaker as he tried to close him down. the ball fell favourably, but Mahrez’s finish elevated a fairly basic slice of good fortune into something rather special. he didn’t panic, he didn’t rush. he moved towards goal, stopped, checked his stride, convinced goalkeeper lukasz Fabianski that he would be aiming for the far post, and slipped it smartly past him low at the near post instead.
the roar in the stadium was as much of relief as jubilation. For all the rousing rhetoric before the game, everyone in the crowd will have feared the pressure of a goalless scoreline as the secondhalf minutes ticked away, the tension unbearable, the creeping fear that this incredible season might end in heartbreak. A goal to the good, they exhaled. the players did, too, and could have had the game won by half-time. in the 27th minute, Fabianski punched a corner clear, Danny Drinkwater fired a shot back and christian Fuchs almost turned the ball in amid a scramble. A minute later, Jeffrey Schlupp — preferred to Marc Albrighton in a rare unforced change by ranieri — fed Shinji okazaki, whose shot was deflected just wide. the hosts’ intensity told minutes later. Drinkwater struck a perfect free-kick from the left which Ulloa met at the near post, Fabianski had no chance. ranieri had pronounced his faith in his reserve striker almost from the moment Vardy was sent off against West ham last week, and this was why.
FAr from being a novice, when Ulloa arrived from Brighton in 2014, he cost a club record £8million, and his instinct for goal remains very much intact. his second, after 60 minutes, was the clincher, the one that allowed the King power Stadium to properly let go. credit goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel with a big role in the build-up, his kicked clearance picking out Schlupp on the left, with Angel rangel’s challenge falling well short of what was required.
Schlupp set off, full of speed and energy, outstripping Federico Fernandez and bursting into the penalty area. he hesitated and Williams came across to block his shot, but the ball rebounded to Schlupp, who prodded it towards goal. the ball seemed to be bobbling wide, but in swooped Ulloa at the far post to make sure. it was simply leicester’s day, a fact confirmed by a fourth goal that involved each of ranieri’s three substitutes. Demarai Gray sped down the right, skinning Williams once more, and his cross picked out Andy King, deep. Misdirecting a header across goal, King succeeded only in finding Gray, who had continued his run into the box and forced a save from Fabianski. out the ball came, straight to Albrighton, who smashed it in to confirm leicester’s biggest win of the campaign.
it could have been more, had leicester taken all their chances. Another for Fuchs in the first half, plus a Schlupp shot tipped round after 66 minutes and an okazaki finish struck over the bar threatened to make this an embarrassment for Swansea.
they had a couple of cracks, usually through dead balls from Gylfi Sigurdsson, but are far from being members of the premier league’s awkward squad. A West Brom team sent out by tony pulis? that could be a different matter. As leicester’s champions elect flew south last night, they will have reflected on tottenham’s players tucked up in bed, yet with it all to do.