Leicester City dropped all three points to Chelsea on Saturday morning at the King Power, losing by a score of 2-1. Nicolas Jackson opened the scoring for the visitors in the first half after turning Wout Faes inside out. In the second half, Enzo Fernandez scored with a header to double the lead before a late Jordan Ayew penalty gave the Foxes the faintest of hopes.
The scoreline makes the match look like it was exciting, or at the very least close. It was neither of those things. The statistics make it clear that this match was one-way traffic for almost the full 90 minutes. Chelsea had 64% of the ball and outshot us 16-4, with Leicester only getting one shot on frame. If not for some poor finishing and some really weird bad luck, the Londoners would have had a much more representative lead.
On the other hand, there was a significant penalty shout for City in the dying minutes. It wasn’t given, but it was very much a coin-flip situation. It would have been deeply unjust to the visitors to have had to settle for a point, but I’ll take unjust points any day. They count just the same.
It’s hard to gauge the performances today. The defensive players were asked to defend deep from the opening whistle and the attackers never saw the ball. This was the gameplan they were asked to follow and they did as they were instructed. Unforced errors by Faes and Okoli led to the goals, and that was disappointing. But, the tactics today ensured that the defence would be under pressure the entire match and there are going to be errors when you try to defend for 90 minutes.
The defeat leaves us on 10 points from 12 matches. We remain 15th on the table for now, but as this was the first match of the week, that won’t last. In one week, we travel to Brentford and we open our December programme on the 3rd when we host West Ham.
3 Takeaways
- Kasey McAteer has a motor. He was able to get past his fullback when given the opportunity and he made intelligent runs all afternoon. He’s a clever player and I hope he gets more chances.
- The mood around the King Power seemed resigned right from the beginning. It didn’t help that Chelsea came out of the gate so strong, but there’s not a lot of belief among the supporters right now.
- Coop’s in trouble. It’s not the result that was the problem, it was (waves arms) all of this. The mood, the tactics, the players’ body language. It’s not working and it’s hard to watch.
Leicester City: Mads Hermansen, James Justin, Wout Faes, Caleb Okoli, Victor Kristiansen, Wilfred Ndidi (Stephy Mavididi 71’), Harry Winks (Oliver Skipp 11’), Boubakary Soumare, Kasey McAteer (Jordan Ayew 71’), Bilal El Khannouss (Bobby De Cordova-Reid 79’), Jamie Vardy (C) (Patson Daka 79’)
Chelsea: Robert Sanchez, Wesley Fofana, Benoit Badiashile, Levi Colwill, Marc Cucurella, Moises Caicedo, Enzo Fernández, Noni Madueke, Cole Palmer, Joao Felix, Nicolas Jackson