Manchester City 3-1 Leicester City: Hits and Flops from the encounter | Premier League 2019-20
Manchester City blitzed past Leicester City 3-1 at the Etihad Stadium as the defending champions trimmed down Liverpool’s lead at the perch of the Premier League table. The visitors, meanwhile, wasted an opportunity to go further clear of the Sky Blues.
The Cityzens began the game brilliantly and immediately imposed their identity on the encounter. However, they were caught out by the proverbial sucker punch in the 22nd minute when Jamie Vardy raced through on goal and cleverly clipped the ball over Ederson.
City though, restored parity eight minutes later when Riyad Mahrez’s shot took an enormous deflection off Caglar Soyuncu to beat Kasper Schmeichel. A couple of minutes before half time, Raheem Sterling was brought down in the box by Ricardo, meaning that the hosts were awarded a spot-kick. Ilkay Gundogan converted the resulting penalty to ensure that the Sky Blues entered the break with a one-goal cushion.
After re-emerging from the tunnel, Leicester looked slightly more adventurous, although that only exposed more gaps at the back. Subsequently, City made the most of those openings as Kevin de Bruyne set up Gabriel Jesus for the latter’s first goal at the Etihad this season.
Here is a look at the hits and flops from the game.
#5 Jamie Vardy – Hit
Leicester came into the encounter in 2nd place and hoped to underline their credentials as Liverpool’s closest title challengers in the current campaign. Inevitably, all eyes turned to Jamie Vardy with plenty expecting the Englishman to come up trumps against Pep’s troops, again.
And, though he scored his customary goal against the Sky Blues, he was largely let down by his teammates, meaning that the Foxes succumbed to their first loss since the 5th of October.
On the personal front, the striker caused more than a furrowed brow among the City ranks. He was exceptional with his movement and always played on the shoulder of the last defender. In the process, Fernandinho and Otamendi were caught wrong-side plenty of times.
Additionally, his tendency to drift onto the flanks during swift counter-attacks dragged the centre-backs out of position and accorded him the adequate space to cause havoc. The aforementioned traits came to the fore for the Foxes’ goal when Vardy isolated himself with Fernandinho on the left channel. The Englishman then outpaced the Brazilian before clinically dinking the ball over Ederson.
The striker also set up Harvey Barnes a couple of times with superb crosses, although his compatriot fluffed his lines. Hence, Vardy turned in a relatively accomplished performance and it was a pity that he couldn’t have anything more than a goal to show for it.