While this may have been billed as the battle for second place with Liverpool riding high at the top of the table, you wouldn’t have been able to tell courtesy of the back and forth action between Leicester City and Manchester City at the King Power Stadium this evening. In the end it was Pep Guardiola’s men who got the win, but it wasn’t without an element of controversy.
The two sides helped to prove why they, alongside Liverpool, have been head and shoulders above the rest in the Premier League so far this season. They traded a variety of shots throughout both halves and while they were a little bit wasteful, the sequences that led up their opportunities helped to make for quite the spectacle.
End to end football
The biggest and best opportunity for Leicester came when Jamie Vardy was put clean through on goal but was unable to slot the ball into the back of the net – hitting the post instead. The Foxes will feel particularly aggrieved that they weren’t given a penalty on two separate occasions in the first half, too, with Kevin De Bruyne seemingly handling the ball in the wall from a Leicester free kick and Kelechi Iheanacho being taken out by Ederson inside the box.
As the game progresses the visitors were slowly working their way back into the game, and it looked as if they were going to take the lead when they were awarded a penalty of their own for handball. While the VAR side of things may have added a degree of controversy, the responsibility fell to Sergio Aguero to give them the lead: and he was unable to do so with Kasper Schmeichel saving a relatively poor penalty.
VAR in the spotlight
Alas, the reigning Champions of England weren’t going to be denied as Gabriel Jesus scored the winner after a strong run from Riyad Mahrez opened Leicester up at the back.
Brendan Rodgers will need to re-focus his side for an important Friday night trip to Carrow Road where they’ll face bottom of the table Norwich City, whereas the biggest game of the season so far for Manchester City will be upon them on Wednesday night when they travel to Santiago Bernabeu to face Real Madrid in the UEFA Champions League.
Match Report
Leicester: Schmeichel (8), Fuchs (7), Evans (7), Soyuncu (7), Chilwell (6), Maddison (7), Praet (6), Tielemans (6.5), Pereira (7.5), Iheanacho (6.5), Vardy (6), James (6), Barnes (6.5), Perez (6)
Manchester City: Ederson (7.5), Walker (7), Fernandinho (7.5), Laporte (7.5), Mendy (7), Gundogan (7), Rodrigo (7), De Bruyne (7), Mahrez (8.5), Aguero (5.5), B.Silva (6.5), Jesus (7.5), Otamendi (6.5)
Referee: Paul Tierney
Goals: Jesus
Yellow Cards: N/A
Red Cards: N/A
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