Chelsea 2-2 Leicester City: 3 things to discuss as Chelsea plays a hard-fought game against Leicester City in the 25th game-week.
Leicester City and Chelsea played a tough game at the King Power stadium in the 25th game-week of the Premier League, a battle between 3rd and 4th placed team in the table.
This game definitely had the potential of changing the dynamic of the top-4 race, but a draw in the end, has brought no significant change as Leicester City is at 49 points and Chelsea at 41.
But in this game, Chelsea struggled to be the dominant side, a first-half with poor conversion, with Leicester City dominating the Blues after they scored the first equalizer in the game.
Frank Lampard needs to introspect into his gameplan as we enter into the crucial game-weeks of the season. On the other hand, the Foxes without the lethality of Jamie Vardy is also finding it hard to keep it going.
Nevertheless, a good game at the King Power stadium and we look at the three talking points after the game ends 2-2.
1. Rudiger saves the London ship
At one point of time, it seemed Chelsea will lose to Leicester City, as the Foxes came behind to stun Chelsea in the second half of the game. The Blues have consistently conceded easily to lose their advantages in this season of the Premier League.
Meanwhile, Leicester City also looked to be at the front seat, until Chelsea’s Antonio Rudiger step in to score an unexpected brace against the hosts to at least clinch back a point in the game.
Both goals by the German defender was scored through headers, the first one was to gain a lead over their opponents when Rudiger pounces with a header from a close range, as Mason Mount arcs a deep delivery.
But an equalizer by Harvey Barnes and Ben Chilwell brought at the back foot, but the German once again took a gigantic leap to score a header from Mount’s ball, while defeating Chilwell in the air.
Whereas, Kasper Schmeichel having no response to it follows the movement of the ball, which lands into the left-corner. Bringing Chelsea back into the game.
2. Leicester City miss Vardy party
Leicester City was or is still a side to reckon with in this edition of the Premier League. However, there was a phase when the results for Leicester City spiked as Jamie Vardy netted goals for fun.
The 9-0 drubbing of Southampton was the biggest example of it. But since past few games, Vardy has drastically fallen while performing. His lethality has been missing for a while.
Even in this game, Chelsea was able to keep the English striker silent. Thus, the reduced number of goals by Vardy has obviously affected Leicester City. So it is right to say that Leicester City is missing Vardy party as they are slowly slipping in the table.
Although Vardy could have made a brilliant assist, as he gave a grounded cross from the right flank, which precisely reaches to Harvey Bares, he shockingly misses it and blowing a crucial chance to once again obtain the lead which could have been the winning goal of the game.
3. Is dropping Kepa Arrizabalaga really a solution?
Frank Lampard took the risk of dropping already under the fire Kepa Arrizabalaga and started Willy Caballero against Leicester City, but is it the solution to Chelsea’s leakage in goals.
Not in this game at least as Chelsea conceded two goals even after being ahead in the game. The problem lies in the defensive setup of Lampard and he has to make few amendments for the long run.
Meanwhile, Caballero had a decent performance, he even denied Jamie Vardy to score a goal. But one cannot expect consistent performances from the deputy of Kepa Arrizabalaga.
