Leicester City were two minutes away from beginning project restart with a win, only for Craig Dawson to snatch a point for Watford in injury time.
Ben Chilwell’s 90th-minute thunder-strike looked set to reward Leicester City with all three points. However, an unlikely source, in Craig Dawson, delivered a dramatic overhead kick to deny the Foxes of their first victory at Watford since March 2016.
In a game that lacked much intensity until the second-half, a draw could be seen as a fair result for both parties after not playing since March.
With the draw between Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United, City are now eight points safe in the Champions League places with eight games remaining.
This article looks at three things we have learnt from the 1-1 draw against the Hornets.
Demarai Gray changed the game for Leicester City
Gray was introduced to the contest on 65 minutes, replacing Harvey Barnes. Despite only playing 31 minutes, the winger created the most chances out of any other player.
After not appearing in a league game since the 2-1 home defeat to Southampton in January, Gray contributed to Chilwell’s goal with an assist and came close himself in a positive performance for the out-of-favour man.
The winger is currently in his fourth full season at the club and has failed to live up to his potential. Since his move to the East Midlands, Gray has made 126 league appearances, 74 of them coming from the bench.
With Barnes struggling to keep up with the tempo and get into the game, Brendan Rodgers’s decision to put Gray on certainly helped the Birmingham-born man’s wish for first-team football.
Completing 85% of his passes, Gray created three chances for his team-mates and also made four ball recoveries. After his arrival, Gray did something that Barnes struggled to do all game, take a shot on Ben Foster’s goal.
With the mass amount of games the Foxes will face in the coming weeks, the performance from Gray will have City fans excited about the 23-year-old… once again.
Chilwell’s goal shouldn’t overlook his defensive mishap against Ismaila Sarr
England left-back Ben Chilwell, who is the subject of apparent Chelsea interest and now maybe even a bid, added to his goals against Southampton and Chelsea with a rocket into the top corner, worthy of winning any game.
After rumours of a move to Chelsea, the Leicester academy-graduate handed Frank Lampard’s side more reason of securing his signature with his strike. A rumoured £65 million plus is a touted valuation at present, maybe that’s increased as of Saturday’s wonder strike.
However, despite his goal, Chilwell continued to struggle with his attacking counterpart in the hands of Sarr. In the first-half, on two occasions, Watford’s winger managed to out-run Chilwell and drove into the Foxes penalty box. Luckily for Chilwell, the Watford man struggled with his final product.
With the fact that it was his first game back since March, the fitness levels of most players in the Premier League will have dropped. But, as Riyad Mahrez did at the Etihad in December, Sarr had much success against Chilwell.
With a drop of the shoulder and a burst of pace, Sarr managed to cause Chilwell problems throughout the game and the Senegal-international was brilliantly denied by Kasper Schmeichel in the second-half.
Leicester do have a wide range of squad players to choose from
With the new allocation of players that clubs are allowed to name on the substitute bench, Rodgers had nine players to choose from at Vicarage Road.
Despite being allowed to use five of the nine substitutes, only three were used: Gray, Kelechi Iheanacho and Hamza Choudhury entered late into proceedings. Left on the bench were Ayoze Perez, Christian Fuchs, Nampalys Mendy, Wes Morgan, Danny Ward and Ryan Bennett.
With Gray making a significant influence on the proceedings, the option to include the winger into the starting line-up in the future will feel more comfortable.
Youri Tielemans and Barnes were both replaced in the second-half with the game with Brighton and Chelsea in the FA Cup upcoming – squad rotation is vital.
The players that remained on the sidelines all offer different usage to the players who were already on. Perez’s capability to play as a wide playmaker; Mendy’s ball-winning midfield capabilities; as well as Morgan’s leadership show that City are in capable hands going into Tuesday’s contest against Brighton & Hove Albion.
After Brighton came from behind to beat Arsenal on Saturday, Graham Potter’s side will travel to King Power Stadium confident of making it two wins in a row. Yet the Foxes will be ready!