Sublime hat-trick sparks a Vardy party
LEICESTER 4 Vardy (3, 20, 78), King (5) MAN CITY 2 Kolarov (82), Nolito (90)
A JAMIE VARDY party is always worth waiting for and after 16 club games without a goal, fun was back on the agenda big-time with his first-ever Leicester City hat-trick.
Not only did a brilliant striker’s treble end his drought, it made Pep Guardiola and Manchester City look ridiculous.
At £47.5million, John Stones will have a bad hangover this morning and not one he enjoyed getting.
From the opening whistle, 29-year-old Vardy was a man possessed, wild-eyed and jet-heeled as usual but with a clear sense of control and purpose.
The shambolic visitors simply couldn’t cope with the energy, intensity and, yes, intelligence.
After three minutes, he dashed through the gap between Stones and Aleksandar Kolarov to end his poor run and proudly puffed out his chest as if to say: ‘Told you so.’
Twenty minutes in, he reacted quickest to a flick from Riyad Mahrez. As goalkeeper Claudio Bravo froze, Vardy rounded him and slotted home in one smooth movement.
In between those strikes, Andy King wonderfully curled home the second goal after just five minutes on the clock. Robert Huth flicked a long throw on to Islam Slimani, who played it to King. In a match of glorious moments, his finish perhaps topped them all, powerfully struck and bending away from Bravo.
Crisis, what Leicester crisis? And Vardy didn’t let up. When another another Stones backpass to Bravo put his team in trouble after 78 minutes, Vardy nipped in and rolled the ball over the line via the inside of the post from the acutest of angles.
City defender Kolarov did net a free-kick in the 82nd minute before Nolito knocked in another in injury time but it was a sobering experience for Guardiola and his well-beaten team.
It was exactly what Vardy, Leicester and their manager Claudio Ranieri needed to see in the pouring rain.
A year ago, he had just set a Premier League record for scoring in 11 consecutive league games and his strike against Chelsea on December 12 put his team top — and cost Jose Mourinho a job.
Vardy ended the campaign as a Premier League champion, Footballer of The Year and courted by Arsenal. But this season had been a different story until last night with the team kicking off just a point above the bottom three.
The striker had been rested for Leicester’s 5-0 Champions League stuffing in Porto on Wednesday and he made the extra energy count.
His pressing in the final third was the stuff of nightmares for Bravo and a ropey Manchester City defence. Had Guardiola not watched any videos of Leicester in the build-up?
Kevin De Bruyne, the only player to offer token first-half resistance, went close on 50 minutes and Pablo Zabaleta had a strike deflected wide.
Bravo was induced into blind panic at the sight of Vardy haring down on back passes by Stones. Twice he sliced clearances having lost control of the situation.
The visitors’ back three didn’t seem to know which one was meant to pick up Leicester’s main man.
In reality, none of them did for his early strike, quickly added to by Leicester’s second from King after five minutes.
At half-time, they had mustered just 23-per-cent possession but still led by three goals.
Manchester City, missing Sergio Aguero but still with millions of pounds of talent on the park, hadn’t mustered a shot on target.
On 82 minutes, Kolarov scored a fine free kick to mitigate City’s humiliation. It was their first shot on target. Nolito made the scoreline look a little less harsh, turning in Kolarov’s cross on 90 minutes but it was cosmetic and couldn’t disguise the ugliness of the performance.
The pace in Vardy’s legs was matched by ice in his veins. The great Guardiola was so flummoxed he seemed to veer wildly between a back-three and flat back-four.
Pablo Zabaleta spent much of the evening moving from his position in front of the defence to a more orthodox right-back.
Vardy had scored 15 goals for Leicester by this time last season. This treble took his tally to six this time — plus one for England — but on yesterday’s evidence he’ll start to catch up now.
A reserved Vardy said: ‘We just wanted to make sure we were competitive today. I think we’ve done that. Everyone we left at home would rather have travelled but we’re all in it together.
‘Now we’re looking forward to getting back on the training pitch.’
Midfielder King added: ‘Today was about getting back to basics and doing what we do best, getting in people’s faces and playing at a high tempo. Doing it against such a good team is really good.
‘We know we’ve been better than we’ve shown in the last couple of weeks but it’s about getting back to doing things right.’
It’s time to start the party.