Cristian Stellini apologized for the lack of effort as Leicester produced one of the most comprehensive football results of the weekend in the Premier League. Spurs were outplayed and outfought at the King Power, where James Maddison and Harvey Barnes led the home team to victory, less than a week after they were at their best to defeat Manchester City at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, a game Conte missed while recovering from surgery. A wayward ball from a corner gave Spurs the early advantage after 14 minutes thanks to Bentancur, but the game was quickly reversed. Nampalys Mendy’s goal, which was a contender for goal of the season, brought them even before James Maddison put them in lead shortly after.
After Spurs made little progress in the second half, Leicester finished off a strong afternoon with Harvey Barnes’ precise finish into the bottom corner to complete a merited thumping at the King Power Stadium. Leicester took the lead thanks to a magnificent Kelechi Iheanacho goal on the stroke of halftime. A possibly critical injury to goal scorer Bentancur, who was substituted midway through the second half, added insult to injury to Spurs’ miserable afternoon.
In addition to last weekend’s thrilling victory over the league champions, Tottenham entered the King Power Stadium with confidence thanks to Conte’s return following his good recovery from gall bladder surgery. The Spurs manager had been advised to relax, but it would have been hard to stomach what he saw in the East Midlands. After January’s arrival, Victor Kristiansen had miraculously cleared over the bar from his own goal-line, Spurs capitalized on a solid start by having Bentancur head in a corner from a few yards out.
But after that, tension started to build in the away dugout. Ten minutes later, Leicester equalized after winning their first corner of the game. Mendy scored his first goal for the team in impressive fashion by slamming a clearance back past Forster before he could react. The Foxes then took the lead in an instant. When Leicester got the ball back and counterattack quickly, Eric Dier moved out of defense and was caught off guard, giving Maddison a clear shot to beat Forster and finish the swift turnaround. The genuine knockout blow for Tottenham came from Iheanacho’s addition of a third goal just before halftime. Dier had stood off the Nigerian striker, giving him time to pick out the back of the net.
After the break, it was anticipated that the Spurs would make some sort of comeback, but it never happened. Instead, when Barnes from a tight angle shot across Forster, Leicester believed they had a fourth, but VAR disallowed him on a thin offside review. He and Maddison had energized Leicester’s assault, but their recent additions, Kristiansen, Tete, and Harry Souttar, also made an impression in a truly excellent performance from the visitors. And with the clock ticking down, Barnes did score with a beautifully placed finish into the bottom corner from 25 yards to round off a fantastic victory for Brendan Rodgers and his team.
“There is a reason why we have been shorthanded and why we weren’t able to sign players until January, without offering any justifications. We’ve made strides, and you can tell what a difference it makes,” Leicester manager Brendan Rodgers said. “The plot, the preamble, and the appetite. You want your football to be quick and exciting, and when we’re playing well, we put on shows like that. It was a continuation of last weekend’s game against an excellent Champions League squad and an outstanding performance and victory. We were excellent strategically and the guys played with great bravery to press the game and be aggressive when necessary.”
“Although we got off to a good start and scored right away, we may have mistakenly believed that the rest of the game was a little simpler than usual,” he added. “Every objective you give up has some flaw, sometimes the flaw is one you can overlook, sometimes not so much. It’s not just about one mistake or another; it’s about the entire squad. It’s about the team and how the team needs to perform following a game we won against City; we need to move past this and keep playing with the same zeal. Here’s the process.”
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