Everton 2-1 Leicester: Is CL qualification out of Foxes’ hands?

Writing about another disappointing Leicester City result and performance feels common now. Is Champions League football looking more unlikely?

Leicester City suffered a 2-1 defeat at Everton last night thanks to goals from Richarlison and Gylfi Sigurdsson in the first-half, forcing the Foxes to be chasing the game for the majority of the contest.

Had anything changed from the Chelsea defeat? I think it’s fair to say that before Richarlison broke the deadlock, the King Power team controlled possession well to keep the time on the ball for Everton to a minimum. But it wasn’t until the second-half that the Foxes attacked with an element on intent.

Following the defeat, Brendan Rodgers claimed he is “frustrated” at the number of times he has to rescue the game at the break.

Richarlison’s 11th goal of the season seemed to kill confidence, if any, in the team in pink and the decision from VAR to reward the Toffees a penalty didn’t help. I’m not going to dwell on the decision, we know we’ve had decisions not go our way, but to be 2-0 down after 16 minutes just doesn’t sit right.

Rodgers made one change from the FA Cup exit on Sunday, replacing Ayoze Perez with Marc Albrighton. A hero in the 2015/16 squad, did the winger deserve to start ahead of Perez? Albrighton’s key area comes from crossing, Leicester City delivered 35 crosses against Everton and only created three accurate. I don’t think the decision showed to be the correct one.

Champions League out of Leicester City’s hands

I labelled yesterday’s game a must-win for Leicester. With Manchester United easing past Sheffield United and Brighton & Hove Albion since the restart, the Red Devils look world class at the moment and now sit only three points behind us.

To put this in perspective, when Leicester dismantled Aston Villa in December they sat in second-place and 14 points clear of Ole Gunnar Solksjaer men. Since the turn of the year, Leicester have collected on 13 points whilst Manchester United have 21.

Whilst we have Chelsea and United edging closer, Wolves are not getting the recognition they deserve. They have 22 points in 2020, losing only twice and have performed brilliantly since the restart of the league. The partnership of Raul Jiminez and Adama Traore is flourishing more than ever and they face Arsenal on Saturday.

Now for the positives. After the defeat at Goodison Park, Chelsea suffered a derby defeat at West Ham United courtesy of an Andriy Yarmelenko 89th-minute goal. Every goal highlighted the Blues struggle to defend well, certainly Antonio Rudiger for the winner. Frank Lampard’s sides’ defensive flaws were also attacked on Sunday, but the likes of Vardy and Barnes failed to make the most of that.

Other positives to come from yesterday was the performances from James Maddison and Kelechi Iheanahco. Both came on at half-time and made a huge difference in the tide of the game. Iheanacho halved the deficit on 51 minutes and should of equalised later on. But, the Nigerian had 28 touches in the second-half and succeeded with 94% of his passes.

Maddison, who missed Sunday’s game, has received criticism for his performances during the restart. But when the playmaker entered the proceedings on Wednesday, everything came through him.

Despite aimlessly firing over from the edge of the box twice, the England man showed neat footwork, high work-rate and the determination to grab an equaliser. The second-half performance definitely draw positives for Rodgers and he will hope that continues on Saturday against Crystal Palace.