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MOTD: Leicester City 2-1 Chelsea

By on December 14, 2015

Perhaps if Leicester City had Chelsea’s brand they would already be considered title favorites and if Chelsea were named Leicester City the pundits would deem them in a relegation scrapple. Over the past seven months the two sides’ role reversal has defined a crazy Premier League season and today, Leicester proved yet again that they’re top of the Premier League on merit, with a fantastic 2-1 win over the reigning champions that leaves The Blues just one point above the relegation zone. Claudio Raneiri’s men are living the dream and the Italian boss chuckled, “I don’t want to wake up,” in a post-match interview. Riyad Mahrez and Jamie Vardy lethally combined with a goal apiece to down Leicester’s visitors, their twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth combined goals of the season. In stark contrast, Chelsea have only scored eighteen in total so far this season.

Jose Mourinho’s nightmare took another dark turn as his team was suffocated by the verve and vitality of Ranieri’s Leicester side. The Blues have lost five of their last seven Premier League fixtures and nine so far this season, leaving them just one point above the drop. The Portuguese manager admitted that Leicester outplayed them for the majority of the match and candidly conceded in his post-match interview that Chelsea deserved to lose.

Yet even in the worst moments, Mourinho rounded on his players in what seems thus far to be a losing battle. Throughout multiple post-match interviews he said that his team had “betrayed” Chelsea’s ethos and the hard work – “my hard work,” he termed it – that went into building their unstoppable team last year. Chelsea looked ragged and their back-line, which has been their most reliable asset through their poor run of form, was picked apart with ease. Most of all, they simply lacked the fight, save for a panicky finale. In the twenty-seventh minute, Eden Hazard landed awkwardly on his hip and gingerly returned to the pitch as Pedro warmed up; yet as the ball was played into the winger’s feet at the near touchline, Hazard felt another twinge and scrapped the night. In disdain at his manager’s request for the twenty-four-year-old to continue, Hazard headed straight off the pitch and down the tunnel with a flick of the hand in the direction of Mourinho. After hearing his manager’s comments, it’s not hard to imagine that Hazard ultimately continues straight into the hands of Real Madrid or another suitor.

If Mourinho has already lost his dressing room, it’s only a matter of time before Roman Abrahmovic’s faith begins to wane as well. For the moment, utter shock of their fall has paralyzed the Russian owner.

The weight of their strenuous expectations, one Premier League trophy in particular, have been keeping Chelsea from picking themselves back of the ground this season. Although they controlled the opening quarter hour, Mourinho’s men were hesitant to push forward. Diego Costa’s runs into the box were often redundant given Chelsea’s lack of width, penetration and crosses.

In stark contrast, Leicester played enthusiastic, free-flowing football without the shackles of expectation. Before the game, Ranieri was asked: “Do you feel any pressure to win?”

“No,” came the response with a small smile and alight shrug of the shoulders.

In the thirty-fourth minute, Leicester hit on the break. Mahrez, who had earlier tested Thibaut Courtois with two low efforts, brought the ball down on the right and shifted the ball to his left foot with an ever so deft touch. Vardy made a near-post run in-between Chelsea’s two center backs and guided Mahrez’s in-swinging cross past Courtois with the deftest of touches, just as crisp as his own Vardy Salted special edition flavor of Walkers’.

Nemanja Matic nearly came up with an immediate equalizer, his towering header skimming off the crossbar, but Kasper Schmeichel had an acute awareness of his goal. Tempers began to flair as Vardy put in a meaty challenge on Costa on the brink of the half, but the lean forward didn’t back down from any afters.

Marc Albrighton terrorized Branislav Ivanovic down the left, nutmegging him more than once. In the forty-seventh minute, Albrighton found the space to loft a lovely far-post cross to Mahrez, who brought the ball down on a dime. With a shimmy of the hips and a fake, the Algerian playmaker turned Cesar Azpilicueta inside out. With a Cruyff turn and cut back the other way, Mahrez created that yard of space on his left foot to bend a beautiful curler around Azpilicueta and right into the top left corner of the net.

“Everybody works hard, but without [Mahrez and Vardy] we cannot win,” mused Ranieri.

Towards the end, Leicester began to even throw in a nutmeg, scissor or flick here and there, although Chelsea came roaring back into life after Mourinho hauled off John Terry and went with three at the back. For the first time in the match, Chelsea looked threatening going forward and Cesc Fabregas guided a lovely ball over the top into the run of Costa on the hour mark. Costa quickly got the ball out from underneath him to poke a shot on goal, but Schmeichel’s trailing foot deflected the ball over the crossbar. From the following corner, the ball fell to Ivanovic at the far post, but the Serbian miscued and allowed time for his marker to recover and block a follow-up effort.

Loic Remy’s introduction to the game gave Chelsea another facet up front and with fifteen minutes to go, the Frenchman got in behind Leicester’s defense to head home Pedro’s cross; however, Leicester endured five minutes of stoppage time to take the three points right out from Chelsea’s mouth. The Blues are a million miles away from where they need to be, or more poignantly, a full twenty points behind Leicester at the top of the Premier League. If Mourinho’s two cents are worth anything at this point, a top four place has also fallen out of their reach, but then again, the man appears to be vastly of tune with his team.

Homepage photo credit: By CFC Unofficial (Debs) (Chelsea 2 QPR 1) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.