Leicester’s backup brigade fail to win as plucky Palace earn a shock point

Despite making seven changes from their 2-2 draw against Manchester United, Brendan Rodgers’ Leicester were still firm favourites to pick up three points on their visit to Selhurst Park.

Crystal Palace lost their last two games by an aggregate score of 10-0 before Monday’s clash, collapsing in a 7-0 defeat at home to Premier League champions Liverpool, before falling to a 3-0 loss against ten-man Aston Villa at Villa Park.

With the Eagles seemingly in free-fall, many expected Leicester to stroll to an easy win in South London. They had the chance to take the lead after just 17 minutes when James Tomkins brought down 19-year-old Luke Thomas in the box for a Foxes spot-kick. Kelechi Iheanacho, given a rare start over Jamie Vardy, was chosen to step up, but his hesitant penalty was saved by Vicente Guaita.

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A dominant first-half for the visitors ended goalless, and they fell behind just over ten minutes into the second period when Wilfried Zaha capped off a superb counterattack to stun the Foxes and score Palace’s first goal in two games.

Harvey Barnes, who was by far and away Leicester’s best player on the pitch, broke Palace hearts late on as he fired past Guaita from the edge of the box to level the scores and rescue a valuable draw for the visitors.

A point is enough to take the Foxes up to second in the Premier League on goal difference, with Everton’s home clash against Manchester City postponed due to multiple positive Covid-19 cases for Pep Guardiola’s side. Nonetheless, Rodgers will have been far from pleased with what he saw on Monday afternoon.

It wasn’t a surprise to see the Foxes boss ring in a whole host of changes having played two days before, but Leicester’s backup brigade showed that there’s a big gap in the quality between the first team and their second choice options. An injury to James Maddison coupled with the decision to rest Jamie Vardy saw the visitors’ attack severely nullified.

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Iheanacho has seen his chances limited at the King Power Stadium this season, making just his second league start of season in South London on Monday. However, the Nigerian striker missed multiple clear-cut chances and looked largely anonymous in the second half. Vardy was brought on to partner the 24-year-old in attack, but the Foxes didn’t look any sharper going forward and Iheanacho was eventually brought off with just under 20 minutes to play.

Leicester weren’t troubled too frequently at the back, holding the vast majority of the ball, but occasional lapses in concentration allowed Zaha clean through on goal multiple times. Against better sides, the Foxes would’ve been severely punished at the back and wouldn’t have walked away with the point that they did. James Justin was one of the few who kept his place from the draw against the Red Devils, and stood out as one of the few Leicester players who shone at Selhurst Park.

That raises questions of whether or not Leicester’s squad is strong enough to keep up with the rest of the title challengers. There’s no doubt that their full strength line-up is more than capable of contending at the top end of the table. But in a season where the fixtures come thicker and faster than ever before, the club’s backups need to be capable of replacing the regular starters.

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Liverpool have shown how important their squad depth has been in the midst of an injury crisis, as have other sides who’ve been overwhelmed by Covid-19 infections. Should the same happen to Leicester, questions would be asked as to whether they could operate at the same level.

This isn’t to slate Palace’s performance yesterday. There was a huge improvement from their last two games and, especially based on their second half performance, they were full value for their point. Hodgson called on his players to step up their collective performance and that’s exactly what they did, keeping their shape superbly throughout the game and looking like a much more organised and cohesive unit.

Although Leicester sit in second and are right in the thick of the title race, they don’t have the strength in depth of those teams around them. Over the course of the season, they may be made to pay for that.

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