Premier League 2019-20: Leicester City 2-0 Arsenal: 5 talking points as the Foxes beat the Gunners at home
In Saturday’s evening kick-off, a rampant Leicester City welcomed an Arsenal side void of confidence to the King Power stadium. In perhaps the first of its kind, the Foxes entered this game as the favourites. Brendan Rodgers’ side sat comfortably in fourth place, six points ahead of their opponents before proceedings.
The game started off in quiet fashion even entering the half time break as a deadlock. It was only in the 68th minute that someone finally put the ball in the net, and that man, of course, was Jamie Vardy. Leicester City quickly doubled their lead seven minutes later through a drilled James Maddison strike. The Foxes would go onto create a host of more chances but ultimately settled for a comfortable 2-0 victory. The win sends them into second place, with Manchester City travelling to Anfield tomorrow.
Here are five talking points from Leicester City’s 2-0 win over Arsenal.
#5 Five at the back for the Gunners
With his job on the line and pressure mounting, Unai Emery made drastic changes to his tactics seen this season. For the first time this season, the Spaniard deployed a back five for the trip to Leicester. Both Héctor Bellerín and Rob Holding made their first starts of the season to complete the defensive transformation. Bellerín and Sead Kolašinac were stationed as wingbacks while Luiz, Holding & Chambers made up the central three.
Clearly, Emery deployed this tactic to deprive a free-flowing Leicester of space in behind. Instead of pressing the Foxes and trying to dominate possession, Arsenal sat back, inviting Leicester to try and break them down. The Foxes are at their best when counter-attacking with Jamie Vardy running in behind, a back five nullified that threat. We may see this line-up from Emery in many more games to come, especially away from home.