Barnes salvages point to move Rodgers’ men up to second
Leicester City moved up to second in the Premier League but dropped points in their pursuit of leaders Liverpool after a 1-1 draw at Crystal Palace yesterday afternoon.
Kelechi Iheanacho had a first-half penalty saved by Vicente Guaita and when Wilfried Zaha fired the hosts ahead, Brendan Rodgers' decision to make seven changes from the draw with Manchester United – including drop - ping Jamie Vardy to the bench - looked to have backfired.
But Harvey Barnes' eighth goal of the season in the 83rd minute salvaged a draw as the hosts bounced back from heavy defeats to Liverpool and Aston Villa with a point.
"We should win the game,” said Leicester boss Rodgers. “We had good control of the first half with the penalty and a few other chances we should have put away, without any real defensive problems.
"Second half, we made a mistake for their goal but then we picked up the tempo and Harvey( Barnes) scores a good goal. Apart from that first 15 minutes of the second half, we had good control and that is a game you have to win."
Anwar El Ghazi cancelled out Olivier Giroud's header as Aston Villa stole a 1-1 draw at Stamford Bridge to stay above Chelsea in the table.
El Ghazi tapped home at the far post with the Blues frustrated neither the officials nor Villa had stopped play, with Andreas Christensen out of commission after a heavy challenge with Jack Grealish.
Giroud had nodded Chelsea into a 1- 0 half-time lead, the striker posting his ninth goal of the campaign .
Villa extended their unbeaten run to five matches, to sit fifth in the table and hold off Chelsea in sixth.
An outbreak of further positive Covid-19 cases at Manchester City forced their Pre - mier League trip to Everton to be postponed just four hours before kick-off.
Three days after Kyle Walker and Gabriel Jesus were among four individuals to return positive tests the club announced another round of testing had "returned a number of positive cases".
City lodged a request to postp one the match yesterday morning with confirmation coming around 4pm after a hastily-arranged Premier League board meeting.