Leicester 4-1 Tottenham: 3 things we learned

Savour these magic Leicester City moments

It might sound cheesy but it’s amazing what a day out watching your football team win can do for your spirits. Tottenham have dished out enough drubbings to Leicester City since they returned to the Premier League and have spoilt many of our days, so today really mattered. For all the horrendous results (6-1, 6-2, 5-4, 4-2 4-3, that 3-2!) it seemed like the foxes landed their heavy punch to Spurs and consequently cast doubt over their Champions League aspirations. Leicester City were all over them and not once did the win look in doubt as they swarmed like wasps to win the ball back on each occasion. A player that epitomised this attitude was one Nampalys Mendy.

Mendy is a player that has endured a curious time in his 7 years at the club. Injured for much of his first few years at the club and sent out on loan, he has never been a first-choice player. But Rodgers might have to re-assess this assertion as Mendy was crucial to breaking up play and progressing the ball. He had a couple of wobbles giving the ball away in dangerous areas but largely his accuracy was over 90% of his 69 completed passes.

The only stat that we’ll take away from this game is the one that saw Mendy do something he’s never done before for Leicester. Surely Mendy would have taken a ‘daisy cutter’ similar to the only goal that N’golo Kante managed in a foxes shirt. When it fell to him on the edge of the box none of us could quite believe what happened next. As those in row Z ducked to protect their pies they were greeted with a thunderbolt that ripped into the roof of the net and nearly lifted the roof off the King Power. Mendy raced away to celebrate with a smile as big as any in Leicester whilst fans looked on in disbelief trying to remember if he had ever even had a shot for the football club before, let alone a goal (he hit the bar at Cardiff in 2018). When he was subbed later in the game, he was given a well-deserved standing ovation. Football was made for days like this.

Bonus referee mention

The game was marred somewhat by inconsistent fouls for both teams and random assertions that nobody in the stadium would make, along with bizarre yellow cards, and bad advantage calls that made no sense to either team. Following an injury call, he ran half the length of the pitch to take the ball off Danny Ward, bounce it and then give it back to him. Everyone can have an off day and maybe this was his. But it’s not good enough for this level and highlights the poor standard that we have grown accustomed to. This is nothing new to learn from but given the shambles of refereeing on offer in the Premier League on February 11, let’s not let this go unnoticed. We pay a lot of money to watch football and deserve better officials.