Leicester City 3 - 1 Arsenal: Player Ratings
Arsenal are still without a single point away from The Emirates, on the road in 2018. Arsenal suffered a 3-1 defeat to Leicester City in Arsene Wenger’s penultimate match as their manager.
Kelechi Iheanacho gave the Foxes the lead after firing in from inside the box, before just a minute later, Konstantinos Mavrapanos was awarded a red card for pulling down the goalscorer, in what was deemed by the ref as a ‘last man’ situation.
Arsenal were able to get themselves back in the game in the second half as Pierre Emerick Aubameyang slotted into the roof of the net to give the visitors an equaliser.
However, a penalty from Jamie Vardy and a Riyad Mahrez goal sealed the win for the hosts.
Here are the player ratings from yesterday’s game:
Leicester City
Eldin Jakupovic – (6/10)
The Leicester shot-stopper had little to do but, made a few good stops. He denied Mikhitaryan a goal in the first half with a save low down to his right and nearly stopped Aubameyang from scoring with a good save, but unfortunately, the striker struck home the rebound, denying him a clean sheet.
Danny Simpson – (5/10)
Simpson’s job was made significantly easier by the Mavropanos sending off, with the only threat down the left-hand side coming mainly from Kolasinac. However, he still looked rather unconvincing, picked up a booking and was eventually taken off due to injury.
Wes Morgan – (7/10)
Before kick-off, Morgan was not a welcomed name on the team-sheet as the majority of Foxes fans would have preferred to have seen Dragovic start. However, he put in a solid shift. Although Arsenal were mainly on the back foot due to having 10 men, he still did his job well in the center of defence.
Harry Maguire – (8/10)
Maguire, like the majority of this season, barely put a foot wrong. The Englishman was effective bringing the ball out from defence and did a great job of keeping Aubameyang quiet, for most of the night anyway.
Christian Fuchs – (6/10)
The bulk of Arsenal's threat was through midfield, meaning it was a night where Fuchs had more freedom to attack, with little worry of being caught in behind. However, he was beaten easily as Maitland-Niles who set up Aubameyang for Arsenal's equaliser.
Hamza Choudhury – (7/10)
The midfielder seems to be a fan favourite at the King Power, and you can see why. Choudhury was comfortable in possession and never panicked, helping his side dominate the ball against 10 man Arsenal.
Adrien Silva – (7/10)
Silva has had an extremely difficult first season in England, failing to make an impact in most of the games he’s played. But tonight, he looked back to his best. He worked extremely hard in midfield and dictated the play and most Leicester attacks.
Riyad Mahrez – (8/10)
Mahrez caused the Arsenal defence havoc all night and finally got the breakthrough with a goal right at the end. The Algerian has magnificent feet, and it left the Arsenal defender’s clueless on a number of occasions.
Fousseni Diabate – (6/10)
Diabate did extremely well to nod the ball down for Iheanacho in Leicester's opening goal, giving him an assist, but he wasn’t one of the Foxes’ better players in an attacking sense. He failed to get in the game as much as his fellow winger Mahrez and was taken off for Gray.
Kelechi Iheanacho – (8/10)
Iheanacho stayed calm and collected to finish when the ball fell to him in the box after 14 minutes, and his determination to shut down Mavrapanos led to his sending off. He made some mistakes sometimes on the counter-attack and was rather greedy at times, but overall it was a very good night for the Nigerian international.
Jamie Vardy – (8/10)
As he usually does against Arsenal, Vardy looked threatening all evening. And unsurprisingly, he picked up his sixth goal in seven matches against the Gunners, scoring from the penalty spot.
Substitutes:
Demarai Gray – (7/10)
Off the bench, the substitute made an immediate impact as he won the penalty for Leicester, which turned out to be a crucial point in the match, helping his team go on to win the match.
Aleksander Dragovic – (N/A)
The center back was brought on for the injured Danny Simpson but had very little time to have either a positive or negative impact.
Harvey Barnes – (N/A)
The youngster was gifted his Premier League debut from the bench with just two minutes plus stoppage time to play.