Leicester 1-3 Arsenal: Further additions to Foxes injury list

It’s not an easy watch at the moment for Leicester City fans, Brendan Rodgers’ side crashed out the UEFA Europa League midweek – by fielding a weakened XI ahead of Arsenal. But, the Premier League fixture offered even more misery for the Foxes.

A patchwork starting XI saw Brendan Rodgers field Kelechi Iheanacho as the “#10” in place of the injured James Maddison. The Nigerian’s experience of leading the line allowed rotations into a 4-4-2 (alongside Jamie Vardy) whilst pressing for Leicester City.

In a similar vein to the SK Slavia Praha game, the Foxes looked exhausted. The press wasn’t effective, the passing out of defence struggled to progress without the structure of Maddison’s movement in the #10. The focus of playing through the pivot (Wilfred Ndidi and Youri Tielemans) then either into the full-backs or the #10 wasn’t possible and that caused a suffocation inside the defensive third.

Even the opening goal – which was taken by Youri Tielemans – was a mistake from Arsenal with regards to defensive decision-making. Jamie Vardy’s gravity (i.e. how impactful he can be thus causing defensive players to “gravitate” towards him) attracted three Arsenal defenders – freeing up the space for Tielemans to surge into a score. It was an excellent finish.

In all honesty, that was a slight glimmer of hope, as the Gunners were always the better of the two sides. Within this, they targeted Luke Thomas at left-back, as the tricky foot-work of Nicolas Pépé was causing great difficulty for the 19-year-old to deal with. Consequently, his yellow card forced Rodgers’ hand at half-time – introducing Marc Albrighton.