SUPER SOAK Vardy storms it as Rodgers’ drench warfare earns ‘gre
JAMIE VARDY continued his oneman crusade to torment Arsenal as Leicester moved up to second place in the Premier League.
At a rain- lashed King Power, the Foxes striker grabbed his ninth goal in 10 games against the Gunners with the kind of strike that is his trademark.
Vardy has carved a career out of finding space in crowded penalty areas – and then putting the ball in the net.
And n the 67th minute, when he was offered up the kind of chance he dreams about in only his sweetest of slumbers, he wasn’t found wanting.
James Maddison secured the three points 15 minutes from the end. No wonder City boss Brendan Rodgers was dancing in the rain.
His team moved above both Manchester City and Chelsea to sit just five points behind former club Liverpool at the top.
Rodgers said: “This is a team that’s very focused, very good defensively, and I felt we controlled large parts of the game.
“It’s a great victory for us against players that can really hurt you. We were able to manage that threat and play some great football.
“We showed real quality to break through. A very, very important three points.”
While the Leicester faithful were rocking at the final whistle, Arsenal’s supporters headed back to north
London to dissect another performance bereft of any passion or plan.
Gunners midfielder Granit Xhaka was apparently in no fit state to play after falling foul of the
Emirates fans l ast month.
Which begs the question, what about the rest of
Unai Emer y ’ s team?
The visitors had positive periods at the start of each half, but in the end they were well beaten.
It said much about the current state of the Gunners that Emery (above) chose Mesut Ozil to play as a false striker ahead of £ 72million record signing Nicolas Pepe.
Apart from a clever dummy that almost put Alexandre Lacazette in for an early chance, Ozil was anonymous.
Pepe finally got on when Leicester were celebrating Maddison’s killer strike. The game was already over.
Lacazette fired one decent chance wide early on, but by then Leicester felt they should have had an early penalty when Caglar Soyuncu went down after tangling with Matteo Guendouzi. Yet once City cranked themselves through the gears, they were able to pin the Gunners back for long periods.
Ayoze Perez was a constant source danger as he exploited the space behin wing-back Sead Kolasinac.
Calum Chambers had to hack dangerous Perez cross from under h own bar with Vardy lurking, and the Hector Bellerin’s terrible pass invite the Spaniard to send a shot whistlin just over Bernd Leno’s crossbar.
When Perez sent another wicke cross skidding through Arsenal six-yard box, the Gunners still failed heed the warning.
It needed a smart block on Vardy b Chambers to keep it 0-0 when Pere again delivered from the right.
Leicester were getting close Maddison whipping a free-kick on the roof of the net.
And then Harvey Barnes mistime