Leicester 0-3 Chelsea: Embarrassing Foxes match report

The Premier League resumed for Leicester City at home in a frustrating fashion against Chelsea where they were thrashed in a one-sided 3-0 loss.

Thomas Tuchel’s side visited King Power Stadium whilst top of the table. The opponents had only lost one match in the whole season before this visit, while the hosts had already lost four matches this season. The current Champions League title holders were the favourites before the match began and they clearly proved that assumption correct the minute after the kickoff.

Brendan Rodgers’ side conceded yet again from a corner in the fourteenth minute of the game when Antonio Rudiger easily headed in the ball from Ben Chilwell. The German International has now scored four headed goals against the current FA Cup Champions in the previous four meeting in the domestic league, all of them coming from set pieces. Evidently the home outfit were completely blown away with the tempo of the league leaders and were outclassed in almost every department.

The gaffer opted to play a double pivot of Boubakary Soumare and Wilfred Ndidi in the heart of the midfield which completely struggled to stop the attacks, in my opinion. Clearly the duo left too many open pockets in the middle of the ground exposing the defensive line at the back; why didn’t Rodgers see that a third man was needed in that remit?

N’Golo Kante extended their lead by 2-0 in the 28th minute, exploring the very same open area; Soumare was partly at fault. But the goal scored by the former Fox was also due to the lack of closing down the attacking threat by the three centre backs: Jonny Evans left it too late to come near the French International as he struck it sweetly to put the ball in the net.

Before the second half kicked off, substitutions were made as Ademola Lookman and Harvey Barnes were replaced by James Maddison and Kelechi Iheanacho. Some might say that they must have started to begin with; the question of not starting the Nigerian striker with Jamie Vardy and not playing a proper number ten should be asked. After making the subs, the improvement in the second half as compared to the first half was astronomical – proving the above case.

Finally, in the 71st minute Christian Pulisic finished the job by extending the lead to 3-0. Leicester City’s attacks still showed some flashes but it becomes irrelevant if the defending is abysmal. Something has to change and it has to change very soon. LCFC subsequently face a huge test against Legia Warsaw this midweek to keep their Europa League hopes alive.