Leicester cruised past Chelsea to leapfrog Manchester United at the top of the Premier League.
First-half goals from Wilfred Ndidi and James Maddison were enough to see the Foxes beat a dire Chelsea 2-0 at the King Power Stadium and put Frank Lampard under increased pressure of the sack.
Leicester manager Brendan Rodgers, and a potential successor to Lampard, praised his players who helped secure his first ever managerial victory over the Blues: ‘It was a very good win and I thought we thoroughly deserved it,’ he said.
‘Chelsea are a fantastic team and they’ve got individual quality so we knew collectively we would need to play very well. It was a combination of talent, work ethic and good organisation. The players did exceptionally well.’
Rodgers saw his side take the lead in the sixth minute when Ndidi’s 20-yard strike spun in off the post after Harvey Barnes’ miss-kick fortunately found its way to the Nigerian.
The hosts continued to dominate the first half and Maddison was unlucky to see his long-distance effort hit the bar with Chelsea goalkeeper Edouard Mendy left helpless.
Fellow Englishman Jamie Vardy then raced through one-on-one with the keeper but Mendy stood tall to palm out the striker’s chipped effort and keep the Blues within touching distance.
Chelsea thought they’d been gifted a lifeline when Christian Pulisic was fouled by Jonny Evans and referee Craig Pawson pointed to the spot, but VAR ruled it to be just outside the box and Mason Mount blasted over from the resulting free-kick.
The very next attack saw the Foxes double their lead when a simple long ball from Marc Albrighton found Maddison free in the box to score his third goal in as many matches and give the Foxes a deserved two-goal lead going into the break.
The second half was comfortable for the hosts despite Chelsea trying to be more aggressive and force their way back into the match. The visitors failed to create any clear-cut opportunities to test Kasper Schmeichel.
Leicester always looked a threat on the counter attack and had the best chances of the second half. Albrighton thought he’d made it three only for the linesman to flag for offside before Youri Tielemans forced a fine save from Mendy having been played through on goal by Vardy.
With the match seemingly over, Lampard’s second-half changes combined for a goal in the 86th minute which looked to reignite life into the match. Hakim Ziyech’s cross was turned in by Timo Werner, but again VAR went against the visitors and ruled the goal offside.
The defeat sees Chelsea stay in eighth position but they could be overtaken by Southampton who are level on points with the Blues despite having played a game less than the Londoners.
Meanwhile, Leicester will sit pretty at the top of the league for at least 24 hours as they await the results of the two Manchester clubs who can both overtake the Foxes with victories over Aston Villa and Fulham respectively.
By Sajidur Rahman
