Leicester City go top of the Premier League with win over Wolves

Leicester City are top of the league heading into the international break after a first-half Jamie Vardy penalty helped the Foxes to victory against Wolverhampton Wanderers at the King Power Stadium.

But the most impressive part of Leicester’s display was arguably their defence, limiting Wolves to very few chances. The visitors had just one shot in total in the first half and while they did manage another six in the second half, these were mainly from long range and just two of these were on target.

Jonny Evans returned for Leicester in defence, starting in the middle of Christian Fuchs and Wesley Fofana, with James Justin and Luke Thomas playing as wingbacks.

Wolves broke forward from the kick-off and looked dangerous, though the attack came to nothing. And for 40 minutes this was the closest Wolves came to even creating a chance.

Leicester were solid at the back and were moving the ball around well ahead of that. The East Midlands side often built what looked to be good attacks but had many of those cut out themselves with Wolves also solid at the back.

When out of possession Wolves lined up with a flat back five, which restricted Leicester’s creativity in attack, yet Youri Tielemans, James Maddison, Dennis Praet, Jamie Vardy, and wingbacks Thomas and Justin all looked dangerous when going forward.

In a game where both defences looked solid, one side was going to have to be clinical when they got a chance. And with the game’s first shot on target, Leicester took the lead through Jamie Vardy from the penalty spot.

 

 

The penalty award was controversial. There is no doubt that Dennis Praet’s cross struck Max Kilman’s arm, but his arm was not outstretched, it was in a natural position. The referee did not award the penalty before an intervention from VAR. But it was given, and it was scored. Vardy hammered the ball down the right-hand side and past Rui Patricio.

Chances were few and far between in the first half, which was not entirely surprising from two sides who played out 0-0 draws in both of their meetings last season, but the second shot on target also came from the penalty spot.

Justin was clever in drawing a foul from Rayan Ait-Nouri, but the Wolves defender was clumsy and unlike the first penalty there were few complaints about this one.

Vardy stepped up again, this time going down the middle, but his shot was saved by the legs of Patricio. The ball cannoned back at the England striker, but he knew little about the rebound which looped just wide.

At half time Marc Albrighton replaced Thomas, and went to right wingback, with Justin moving to the left. This was an attacking change from Brendan Rodgers, who looked like he was trying to kill the game off and given Wolves had barely threatened before the break it was a move that seemed to make sense.

Within a minute of coming on, Albrighton could have had an assist, with a cross finding Tielemans in the box who headed just wide.

Wolves were a lot brighter after the break, and started to offer something going forward themselves, but Leicester were still looking dangerous too.

In the first 10 minutes of the second half, Tielemans came close with a long-range effort, before an ambitious effort from Jamie Vardy was tipped over the bar by Patricio.

 

Moments after that, Wolves broke forward and Podence looked like he would have a tap in from a Nelson Semedo cross, but Fofana came out of nowhere to intercept and clear the ball.

On the hour-mark Adama Traore came on for the visitors and suddenly the game tipped from an even end to end game to Leicester sitting back and soaking up Wolves pressure.

While Wolves were starting to get forward more than they had in the opening hour of the game, they were having similar issues to Leicester in the first half in that they were up against a formidable defence.

Wolves’ best chance of the game came with 13 minutes left on the clock. A freekick from Ruben Neves was heading in before a fantastic save from Kasper Schmeichel.

Moments after that, another contender for Wolves’ best chance came about with a cross finding Leander Dendoncker at the far post who should have turned the ball in but instead failed to find the target.

In the final 10 minutes, Leicester had a fantastic chance to seal the victory, with Justin finding substitute Harvey Barnes who looked for the bottom corner but had his shot deflected just wide.

Neither side could find another goal, meaning Leicester went on to win 1-0, and after Liverpool’s 1-1 draw with Manchester City the Foxes remain top of the table going into the international break.

Wolves are undoubtedly one of the better sides in the Premier League, but against Leicester they did not look like one.

The hosts may not be thinking too far ahead at the moment, but if they can produce more performances of that calibre then a repeat of 2015/16 could be possible, especially with the other clubs at the top dropping points.

With injuries to good players, including Wilfred Ndidi, Ricardo Pereira, Caglar Soyuncu, Timothy Castagne and Daniel Amartey many of whom would probably start if Brendan Rodgers had a fully fit squad, Leicester still sit top of the Premier League, and top of their Europa League group.

Rodgers has built a strong side at the King Power Stadium, and while only eight games have been played Leicester have shown themselves as genuine contenders to this point, but only three points separate the top six sides and the title race looks wide open at this stage.

Follow us on Twitter @ProstInt

[columns] [column size=”1/2″][blog type=”timeline” posts=”10″ cats=”660″ heading=”Leicester City” heading_type=””timeline”” /][/column] [column size=”1/2″][blog type=”timeline” posts=”10″ cats=”659″ heading=”Wolverhampton Wanderers” heading_type=”timeline” /][/column] [/columns]