Leicester 1-2 Chelsea: Three Foxes Talking Points

A Depleted Squad

Such is the strength of Chelsea’s expensive squad that some very good players – such as former Foxes Ben Chilwell and Kiernan Dewsbury Hall – get very little, if no, game time at Stamford Bridge. The contrast with Leicester City couldn’t be greater. At full strength, it is questionable whether City’s squad is good enough to survive, let alone prosper, in the Premier League. Shorn of key players – Ricardo Pereira, Facundo Buonanotte and Abdul Fatawu (the latter for the entire season) – the portents for the home side didn’t look good at all. The loss of Harry Winks with a muscle injury after only ten minutes on Staurday further deepened the gloom.

Predictable but not so predictable

Foxes’ fans approached the game with a great deal of trepidation. In terms of the result, their worst fears were realised as Chelsea ran out 2-1 winners. In terms of the relative closeness of the contest (or at least the scoreline), and the decent display of the home side, it wasn’t quite what was expected. 

In the early stages, it looked like City would be overrun by Chelsea who dominated the ball and it was no surprise when Nicholas Jackson, pouncing on some weak defending by Wout Faes, ran through to put the away side ahead. The Foxes were showing the West London team far too much respect. Suddenly, though, in the last twenty minutes or so of the half, Leicester began to grow into the game, galvanised by some ferocious tackling which earned bookings for the midfield trio of Oliver Skipp (who had come on for the injured Winks), Wilfred Ndidi and Boubakary Soumare. Suddenly, Chelsea were under pressure and Kasey McAteer came close with a rasping drive and Ndidi miskicked horribly when in a good position.

The second half was a war of attrition, neither side creating much although, as to be expected, Chelsea looked the more polished outfit. The game sprang into life in the last quarter with the away side, failing to kick the ball out with a Foxes player out of the game injured, racing up the field and, after Mads Hermansen parried a shot, Enzo Fernandez headed home. It looked like the game was over but Leicester came back into it and Stephy Mavididi, on for McAteer, looked like he was fouled in the box only for the referee to wave play on. A disgruntled home side kept battling and were finally, in injury time awarded a penalty, courtesy of VAR, which Jordan Ayew stroked home.

All in all, although the Foxes won no points, this was a better outcome and performance than many had expected. And if it wasn’t for a poor performance by the referee Andrew Madley, and one of his assistants, as well as the VAR official, Leicester might have won an undeserved, point.

 Response to Maresca

I suspected that the reaction to Maresca’s return would be mixed. There were some boos and some applause accompanied by a great deal of reserved silence. There was more opprobrium directed at Wesley Fofana. Most Foxes’ fans accept that it was difficult for the Italian to turn down a lucrative offer from the West London club and, at the same time, recognised the good job he did whilst he was in the East Midlands. 

A more compelling question is whether the new Chelsea boss would have fared any better than Steve Cooper had he remained at the King Power Stadium. We will never know of course but it is worth speculating that he would have found it equally difficult. There will be those – many even – who disagree with this and now insist that the board must make a change, the latest speculation linking Ruud Van Nistelroy with the job. 

 An alternative view is that Cooper has done a decent job with the resources he had at his disposal and that Maresca’s unalloyed commitment to the possession game might have been less effective than the more pragmatic approach taken by the current City boss. Certainly, as Rob Tanner writes in The Athletic, the statistics suggest that Leicester have improved over the last four games. Encouragingly, going into Saturday’s game, of the 21 promoted sides after 11 games over the past seven seasons, the Foxes lie joint eighth which, history suggests, would be enough to survive.

Having said all that, I think Cooper made two mistakes on Saturday. In the first place, the decision to bench Mavididi was unfathomable. Secondly, he persists in playing Ndidi in a number eight role when his strengths clearly lie as a defensive midfielder. Soumare, on the other hand, was played further back when his strength surely lies in surging forward. Whether the Leicester boss ultimately pays for these kind of mistakes with his job remains to be seen.