How Leicester’s tactical flexibility bodes well for the future

Once in the game, Vardy changed the complexion of the fixture. All the statistics pointed towards the 33-year-old scoring against the Gunners, his record is quite startling, and when Youri Tielemans’ expertly weighted ball found Cengiz Ünder (who’s run was exceptional, a little in-then-out movement to drag his marker – Granit Xhaka – out of the defensive line, giving more space to move into)  in-behind the Arsenal defence, it was always going to be Vardy that finished the move off.

Consequently, the majority of the credit will go to the post-Vardy substitution moments, but I think the Foxes controlled the game throughout the entire second-half, and in the first-half they executed their defensive structure almost flawlessly. The slight gamble was allowing David Luiz time to spread play, especially into Kieran Tierney at left-back. This required very smart movement from their summer signing, Thomas Partey, who dragged his man-marker (Harvey Barnes) away from the centre-back, to give him space to progress into.

Ultimately, once the ball found Tierney, the Gunners couldn’t muster up anything in the centre. It was a plethora of corners, of which they scored a disallowed goal from (in my opinion, this was a harsh goal to disallow), and not a lot else. Once Leicester City weathered this storm, Arsenal offered very little – due to the defensive shape of the Foxes, but also a lack of quality in zone 14 from the hosts.