Seven minutes of mayhem saw Leicester City come from a goal down to beat Liverpool 3-1.
Mohamed Salah’s super second-half goal was overshadowed by a flurry of goals from James Maddison, Jamie Vardy and Harvey Barnes to move the Foxes up to second and further dent Liverpool’s title defence.
The defeat was Liverpool’s third successive Premier League defeat and they now sit 13 points behind table-toppers Manchester City, having played a game more too.
Leicester were boosted before kick-off when Vardy returned to the starting XI following a hernia operation, while Daniel Amartey started at right back after the midweek injury to James Justin in the FA Cup.
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp, on his 300th game in charge, handed a debut to Ozan Kabak – hoping the youngster could replace the presence of the absent Virgin van Dijk.
The away side were looking to recover from the 4-1 thumping they suffered last weekend at the hands of the league leaders Manchester City and started on the front foot – dominating the opening 10 minutes as they looked lively both in and out of possession.
However, the Reds were forced into an unexpected change early on when James Milner was replaced by Thiago Alcantara due to a hamstring injury.
Despite the setback, an early sign of Liverpool’s intentions came when a chance fell to Sadio Mane. It was a perfect counter-attack started by Trent Alexander-Arnold, who then fed Mohamed Salah. His cross found Mane but his shot was superbly blocked by Amartey.
Liverpool soon had another good chance when Jordan Henderson’s cross was fired at goal by Roberto Firmino from close range, but Kasper Schmeichel spread himself brilliantly to save the shot with his outstretched right hand.
Leicester’s first chance of the game fell to Vardy after a brilliant cross by Barnes found the Foxes’ talisman in between the Liverpool centre backs, but his header was straight into the arms of Alisson Becker.
Just minutes later Vardy had an even better chance after Maddison put him through one-on-one with Alisson but his powerful strike smashed off the crossbar.
The first opportunity of the second half fell to Alexander-Arnold after his well struck free-kick clipped the wall and deflected on to the crossbar, leaving Schmeichel scrambling.
After over an hour of Liverpool dominance, the away side got their reward with a world-class goal from the reigning champions. Alexander-Arnold’s cross was controlled by Roberto Firmino who produced a neat piece of skill to spin the Leicester defenders and tee up Salah to bend an effort into the far corner.
Just as Liverpool seemed to have found their stride came the madness. Leicester thought they had a penalty when Thiago made a foul but VAR adjudged the trip to have happened outside the box.
After some deliberation a free-kick was awarded and taken by Maddison from the left hand side of the box who swept a low strike past a crowd of bodies and into the far corner of Alisson’s net. Again VAR was needed to decide if the goal could stand, due to questions over offside, but it did to level the scoreline.
The equaliser sparked a total loss of defensive organisation for the away side as moments later they fell behind. It was a defensive calamity caused by a complete lack of communication between Alisson and Kabak as both attempted to clear Youri Tielemans lofted ball but instead collided with each other. The ball broke lose to an open Vardy who strolled the ball into an empty net.
Things got worse for the Reds when Leicester added a third to leave Klopp fuming on the touchline. A simple pass from Wilfred Ndidi sliced open the visitors’ defence and set Barnes free before he curled an effort beyond Alisson.
It was a brilliantly executed gameplan from Leicester manager Brendan Rodgers whose clinical side punished their opponents after a catalogue of errors in the final 10 minutes.
The win sent Leicester second and six points clear of Liverpool, as the reigning champions now face a real fight for a place in this seasons top four.
