Chelsea avenged their FA Cup final loss to Leicester with a monumental win at Stamford Bridge. Goals from Antonio Rudiger and Jorginho deservedly put the hosts in front after a series of unfortunate events in the first half. But Kelechi Iheanacho’s goal set up a tense finale for the 8000 fans watching on and Ayoze Perez blazed over with a presentable chance, as Blues leapfrogged Leicester once again in this ever-changing top-four race.
Team News
Chelsea
Thomas Tuchel made three changes from the Cup final loss. Before the match he made it clear that the club’s focus was top-four and not the FA Cup. In came Eduouard Mendy, Ben Chilwell and Christian Pulisic. Reece James continued as a centre-back in the back-three.
Leicester City
Brendan Rodgers made two changes from the FA Cup final lineup. Jonny Evans was forced off in that match, so Marc Albrighton replaced him, meaning Timothy Castagne dropped in the back-three. The other change saw James Maddison replacing Kelechi Iheanacho.
Chelsea begin as they meant to go on
The importance of the win was not lost on the Chelsea players. They set out with the hunger and urgency which was missing in the last two matches. The first chance fell to Chilwell, who was cruelly denied an equalizer in the Cup final. Next it was another former Leicester man N’Golo Kante’s turn, and he at least tested Kasper Schmeichel in goal.
Timo Werner was central to most of the action, and had the ball in the back of the net. But as has been the case when he’s found the net, he was offside. Moments later, he nicked the ball from Youri Tielemans and appeared to have been fouled by the Belgian in the box, but neither the referee nor the VAR gave the decision. Then after Mason Mount had an effort tipped over the bar by Schmeichel, another moment to forget for Werner. From a corner, Werner had nodded in, but saw his goal chalked-off due to handball.
Second Half
In the second half, footballing Gods finally smiled at Chelsea when Antonio Rudiger bundled the ball in from another corner. Relief for the Blues, but the job wasn’t done yet. They kept up their intensity and didn’t allow their visitors a sniff at the goal. At 65 minutes, Wesley Fofana fouled Werner and the referee gave a free kick. However, replays showed the contact was inside the penalty area, and soon VAR gave a penalty. Up stepped Jorginho, who with his trademark hop, gave Chelsea much needed comfort.
Leicester had substituted Maddison for Iheanacho to spark some vigor into their attack at the hour mark. However it was only after the second goal that the Foxes came to life. Perez forced a comfortable save for Mendy and Iheanacho fired just wide from the edge of the box. But there was reprieve for the Nigerian as he scored in the next minute. Leicester pressed and won the ball high up the pitch and found Iheanacho, who was completely unmarked in the box.
This sparked a nervy final 15 minutes for the fans watching on. But Leicester created only one more chance, though it was a golden chance. Perez was found free on the edge of the box brilliantly by Ricardo Pereira. But he blazed his effort high when he really should have hit the target. It wasn’t to be, and in the end tempers flared, sparking a long 22-man brawl in stoppage time.
Chelsea survived all of that, to win a must-win game in the top-four race. This was the Blues’ first win in seven against the Foxes, with the last victory coming all the way back in September 2017. Defeat means Brendan Rodgers now relies on his former team Liverpool to drop points to stay in the top-four heading into the final day.
What does it mean for the league table?
Chelsea moved one place up to third in the table, at the expense of their visitors. Leicester are fourth, three points above Liverpool, but if Jurgen Klopp’s men win at Burnley tonight, the Foxes will drop out on goal difference.
Both Chelsea and Leicester have bettered their points tally from last season.
Chelsea 2-1 Leicester City: Opta Stats
- Yesterday saw Man City, Man Utd and Leicester all fail to win – the first day in the Premier League to see each of the sides starting the day in the top three all play but not win since 31st January 2017 (Arsenal, Spurs, Chelsea).
- Leicester have won just two of their last 30 away league games against Chelsea (D11 L17), winning 1-0 in December 2018 and 2-0 in September 2000.
- Chelsea have scored 10 Premier League goals via corners this season, more than any other team. Indeed, the Blues last bagged more goals from corners in a single top-flight campaign in 2016-17 (13).
- Leicester City’s Kelechi Iheanacho is the first player in Premier League history to score a goal on all seven weekdays within a single season.
- Only Leeds United (11) have conceded more goals via corners in the Premier League this season than Leicester City (9).
- No player has scored more Premier League goals in a single campaign with 100% of them coming from the penalty spot than Jorginho’s seven this season (level with James Milner in 2016-17).
- Chelsea’s Antonio Rudiger has scored more Premier League goals against Leicester City than he has versus any other team (3), with each of his last three in the competition coming against the Foxes.
- Marc Albrighton made his 200th Premier League appearance for Leicester City, becoming only the fourth player to reach this milestone for the club (also Vardy, Schmeichel, Izzet).
Up Next
Chelsea travel to Aston Villa on Sunday, in the Premier League.
Leicester have a home game against Europa League chasing Spurs, also on Sunday, in the Premier League.
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