Leicester City 1 – 2 West Brom: Unbeaten home run comes to an end

This evenings game saw Leicester City lose to Tony Pulis’ West Brom side at home at the King Power stadium as the foxes’ unbeaten run at home comes to an end after 20 games.

Leicester City hosted West Brom this evening as the foxes looked to extend their unbeaten home run to 21 games, a feat last recorded by Chelsea under Jose Mourinho as he turned Stamford Bridge into a fortress.

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The game saw the inclusion of Islam Slimani who was back from his injury which saw him miss out on the midweek draw when Leicester traveled to Copenhagen in the Champions League.

His feature in the side meant that Jamie Vardy dropped to the bench for the second time this season as Claudio Ranieri elected to start Shinji Okazaki as a #10 alongside the striker.

It was clear from the kickoff of the first half that rather than being a battle for possession, the match was going to be a battle for the least possession.

With both Leicester City and West Brom’s tactics predominately relying around giving the possession to the other side and sitting back it meant that the two sides canceled each other out to the point where at the half an hour mark, the possession was literally 50/50.

This suited Tony Pulis’ side more as Rondon looked to put Wes Morgan and Robert Huth under pressure.

Early on in the game the defence played a backpass to Ron-Robert Zieler who has found himself with an extended run of games in the first team due to Kasper Schmeichel’s broken hand which will see the great Dane sidelined for over 4 weeks.

As Rondon closed down Zieler he got a touch on the clearance, luckily for foxes fans however it went sailing over the bar.

This set the precedent going forward and for the whole half, Leicester looked to be on edge.

West Brom’s tightly packed defence paired with their strong physicality meant that come half time, Leicester had not registered a single shot on target for the first time since getting promoted back up to the Premier League.

Following the break, the match proved to be a tale of two halves as the play opened up from the the very beginning.

The second half started positively with Leicester City who looked to take on the West Brom full-backs.

Ahmed Musa and Riyad Mahrez both looked to get in behind which they didn’t find a lot of joy in during the first half, mainly due to a lack of trying.

The tactical changes looked positive until James Morrison found himself in the right place to head in the ball from Matt Phillips’ cross which saw West Brom take the lead against the run of play.

Rather than put Leicester down however, going a goal behind seemed to wake the dragon, the dragon being Islam Slimani.

The towering Algerian found himself on the end of Riyad Mahrez’s inch perfect cross as he headed home in his fourth goal of the season just 3 minutes later.

Leicester were looking positive as Demarai Gray replaced Ahmed Musa, another direct winger who looked to give the full-back a run for his money.

With bonfire night come and gone, Danny Drinkwater decided to show the world that he was getting into the Christmas spirit as he gifted West Brom a goal.

His awfully weighted backpass to the keeper saw the ball bypass both Robert Huth and captain Wes Morgan as Matt Phillips came sprinting through with the chance to go one on one with Ron-Robert Zieler, a chance that he only needed once.

Wes Morgan gave a valiant effort to keep the ball out however it was too little too late, West Brom were ahead for the second time.

Leicester had exactly 18 minutes of standard playing time to get back into the match and West Brom had exactly 18 minutes of standard playing time to pull off a vintage Pulis display.

Leicester veteran Andy King came closest after finding himself free in the box for a header on goal however it was straight at Ben Foster.

As the match drew to a close, Leicester edged closer and closer to a goal but to no avail, despite 5 minutes of stoppage time.

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The match see’s Leicester’s 20 game unbeaten run draw to a close. The Fortress was penetrated and Leicester have to build it back up again.

Leicester City’s next game see’s them travel to Vicarage Road as the foxes look to take on a Watford side that lost 6 – 1 to Liverpool earlier today.

Luckily for foxes fans, the international break looms upon us and provides Claudio Ranieri with a chance to galvanise his side and work towards remedying their shortcomings.

The loss today see’s Leicester drop down to 14th place, just 2 points above the relegation zone and unless Ranieri fixes his defence, they’re likely to have a nervous Christmas period.