Leicester 0-1 Arsenal: where Foxes and Rodgers went wrong

Too nice everywhere

Winning football matches in the EPL can be a murky business, until refereeing is sorted properly you have to play the flawed game that is presented to you. Leicester don’t get angry enough, they don’t tactically foul enough and they certainly don’t scream for decisions at the ref enough! See Wout Faes kicked on his knee last week for this lack of intensity. Arsenal’s tactic from 70 minutes onwards was that of time-wasting to levels that haven’t been seen in a long time. The referee pointed to his watch to the paying custodians, one can only presume because it was a recent gift from a loved one as it had no relevance to the minimal injury time he added on.

For Leicester City to progress into a new era they need to stop meekly wasting away through fixtures and be nastier, especially against the well-protected big boys. They could well have done some early time-wasting of their own in the first half if not purely to wind up their emotional opponents who are desperately trying to win the title and arguably had more riding on this game than LCFC. Martinelli could have been fouled in the build-up to his goal, a player could have taken a yellow.

City are too nice, too soft and not nasty enough to be a team anywhere near the top of the table in this current guise. Despite Rodgers telling us all that he likes his teams to be aggressive – we rarely ever see anything resembling that characteristic from his team. Like the man himself, Leicester are a mild-mannered, respectful and pleasant club. Hardly one to fear or trouble the status quo.