A number of surprises in the selection this time as we have seen Brendan Rodgers making his night dreams come alive. Wilfred Ndidi was dropped to the bench and James Maddison missed the game through injury.
Dennis Praet and Bouba Soumare was handed their first PL starts of the season, but as we all had expected Chelsea came out of the starting blocks as the better team.
Chelsea had the upper hand from start and dominated completely. Leicester in this new set up with players and formation changed had problems early on. But when Conor Gallagher was red carded after 28 minutes, pulling down Harvey Barnes. The game changed slightly as Leicester got more possesion.
Just minutes after Chelsea were down to 10 men, Leicester scored from a corner. Harvey Barnes jumped up and his header hit the post as Daniel Amartey pushed the ball over the line. Everyone thought Leicester were 1-0 up, but a VAR check showed a soft touch to goalkeeper Mendy and in all fearness it should have stood, but the ref had his right to disallow.
Leicester conitnued to be positive and with one man more the game changed. Despite a good run in to 2nd half it was still 0-0 at half time.
We all had high hopes for 2nd half but again some Leicester heads had not been turned on as a certain Raheem Sterling popped up just 2 minutes into that 2nd half, scored and suddenly Leicester again had been shocked being one goal down with one man more on the field.
Leicester made two substitutions in the 55th minute taking off Praet and Soumare for Iheanacho and Perez as a more attacking approach was the idea, but as so many times before this season things have not worked out as expected with both formation changes and player changes done.
Chelsea went from a possession orientated side into a counter attacking unit as they managed to produce a number of upsetting situtations and when their new man from Brighton, Marc Cuccurella found Raheem Sterling with a pass in the 63rd minute, and the latter converted it was again a nightmare act as Chelsea went 2-0 up.
Harvey Barnes was set up by Jamie Vardy 3 minutes later and the shot was well placed from close distance as Mendy had to see the ball passing him and going into the net. A fresh and fantastic feeling to see that ball go in as hope was on the rise.
Leicester continued to push for more as Jamie Vardy came close twice being alone with the Chelsea goalkeeper, but not able to convert. Ayoze Perez also hit the bar on one of his attempts and with 11 corner kicks and a turn in possession, Leicester looked lively.
Despite everything that happened and all the changes this game had, we do need to look at the positives as Leicester created a lot of chances and showed that they are a team that can play anyone down and soon we believe this will be a seen against the next opponents.
- Positives
- Harvey Barnes looking better and better, getting goals and being a treath to others
- Danny Ward with a number of grand saves
- Playing Chelsea to the ground away from home
- Keeping good possession and playing some good football at times
- Negatives
- Letting in sloppy goals with one man more on the field
- Changing systems and formations and taking off players getting a chance
- Maddision injured, without him a much weaker team
Player Ratings: Ward 7, Castagne 6, Justin 6, Evans 6, Amartey 4, Tielemans 6, Praet 5, Dewsbury-Hall 5, Vardy 6, Barnes 7, Soumare 5, Subs: Perez, Iheanacho, Ndidi
- Leicester City, Man of the Match
- Harvey Barnes
Match Stats (H/A)
- Possession: 45 / 55
- Corners: 3 / 11
- Shots on target: 3 / 5
- Fouls: 10 / 7
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