Brendan Rodgers has started his rotation of the line-up and the way he is going about it looks just elegant, and his dispositions today was spot on. Dennis Praet and Kelechi Iheanacho made their first PL starts of the season and they both “took it with both hands”. Ben Chilwell was also back after being rested against Watford.
The game started like fire with Caglar Soyuncu and Jonny Evans both coming close in the early minutes, then Aston Villa had a massive opportunity but the shot went over the bar and Kasper Schmeichel could take a deep breath, as his father Peter and former Leicester City manager Brian Little were watching on from the stands.
But with Kelechi being “electric” up front and of course ready to copy his great appearances against Everton, making a killing pass to Jamie Vardy after 20 minutes and with “The Terminator” up front sprinting from everyone and easily passes the ball behind Tom Heaton in the Villa goal, Leicester are 1-0 up, so great.
The game continues to wave a bit both ways as Leicester again takes advantage with a lively James Maddison finding Kelechi Iheanacho, shooting the ball into the crowd of players and hits Kelechi with “power” and “bang”, 2-0.
Just before the half time whistle blows Villa’s best player Jack Grealish finds the net from inside the penalty box and suddenly the game looks wide open again, but at least Leicester have the lead before the break.
This Leicester City team is something special and today with a type of diamond in midfield you get to see Ben Chilwell and Ricardo Pereira both being able to go much more forward keeping Wilfred Ndidi even deeper in the field, and of course with Maddison in there just behind Kelechi and Jamie you get so much energy and talent close to the Villa goal and today this worked 100%.
When Jonny Evans goes up to the mountains and just place his perfect header in a great bow into the Aston Villa goal everything thing looks complete. Leicester are 3-1 up at Villa Park, it’s so fantastic to watch, and with two central defenders like Evans and Soyuncu who also came close just minutes after, just saved be Heaton’s head, you start to wonder how far this can go.
James Maddison is the perfect servant who can do with the ball what few can, and his passes and this time assist to Evans is just wonderful to watch, it’s just wonderful. Then when Jamie Vardy again is played through, this time by Dennis Preat you are sure this will continue to surprise a few “pundits” and winning 4-1 away and for the 8th time in 8th games winning (a new club record), you can’t really see this stopping.
Leicester continued to put pressure on Villa and especially Harvey Barnes needs to work on his finishing, he should have scored twice, and why this gifted youngster is struggling to find the goal is a riddle. Hopefully someone will help him to be a bit cooler in front of goal as he continues to progress and finish off his chances in style.
Leicester are still 8 points behind Liverpool who just continues to win as well, but with Manchester City losing and also Chelsea slipping up, the CL position must be the goal as 2nd place is still real as we are going half into the season soon.
A full week of training and preparation for a possible “banana skin” against Norwich City is the game coming up next Saturday.
To mention is the passing of former Aston Villa manager Ron Saunders, who was honored in the game with applause in the 81st minute, maybe the proudest moment in the recent history of the club Aston Villa, and of course also condolences from TCF are in place.
To sum it all up,
- Positives:
- Scoring four goals away, pushing forward
- Jamie Vardy, what a player what a man, just continuing scoring
- Keeping possession and again electric counter attack
- Kelechi Iheanacho contributing so well, just fantastic
- Rotating working to it’s best
- Ricardo Pereira, he is all over, up and down
- Pushing Liverpool and keeping Man City behind
- Negatives:
- Harvey Barnes again blowing chances, needs to act better
- Ben Chilwell needs to work on his finish delivering
- Player Ratings: Schmeichel 6. Pereira 8, Chilwell 7, Evans 7, Soyuncu 7, Ndidi 7, Praet 7, Tielemans 6, Kelechi 7, Vardy 9, Maddison 8, Subs: Barnes, Albrighton, James
Match Stats: (Home / Away)
- Possession: 49 / 51
- Corners: 8 / 5
- Shots on target: 2 / 6
- Fouls: 21 / 15
- Offsides: 0 / 1
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