Chilly silences the boo boys as Chelsea win 3-1 at chilly Leicester

By Paul Lagan at King Power Stadium

Leicester City 1 v Chelsea 3

Ben Chilwell answered the home side boo boys in typical fashion, scoring the opening goal that saw his Chelsea side see off his former side – a dogged, yet uninspired Leicester City 3-1 at the King Power Stadium.

Kai Havertz restored the Blues lead deep into the end of the first half after Patson Daka equalised.

Mateo Kovacic smashed home the third.

It was a third win on the spin for Graham Potter’s side, who remain in 10th place in the Premier League. Too little too late in the season should see the west Londoners finish out of European  competition.

The only glimmer of hope is to win the Champions League and defend it next season.

The opening spell of the game was a cagey affair with the home side  doing the greater amount of work without much joy.

Chelsea for their part appeared happy to build up slowly when in possession, but very keen not to allow the Foxes too much space in their final third.

But with 11 minutes on the clock, the Mn who the home fans were booing at every touch, ex-Fox Ben Chilwell produced a sensational left-footed volley from a deep byline cross from Kalidou Koulibaly.  Chilwell who was only in the right side of the pitch following an earlier corner, zipped the ball between the post and Danny Ward to put the west Londoners 1-0 up.

Daniel Amartey should have equalised three minutes later but he failed to connect properly to a James Madison free-kick and his unchallenged header from close range went wide of Kepa’s goal.

Joao Felix should have doubled the lead on 24 minutes when the City defence was  bisected by Kai Havertz to feed the Portugal loanee. He did everything right, a cute chip over Ward looked like the ball was destined for the empty net, yet the ball curled at the last moment and bounced off the foot of the post and was cleared.

City responded well and Kieran’s Dewsbury-Hall can also count himself unlucky as his edge of the area shot smacked off Keppa’s crossbar.

In the 33rd minute, Mykhailo Mudryk who had a poor game, picked up the ball deep and raced towards goal before passing to Loftus Cheek. The ball was then pitched across goal where Felix neatly tucked home.

But VAR intervened and adjudged Felix to have been offside and the goal was ruled out.

The home side levelled six minutes after a powderpuff challenge by Felix on Daka was brushed aside and the striker slotted home a cool left-footed drive from the edge of the Chelsea area.

But the Blues restored their one goal advantage in the sixth minute of added time when Havertz clipped the perfect ball over  Ward and the ball dropped into the back of the net.

No one quite knew if the German was offside – he wasn’t.

Felix was replaced by Conor Gallagher at the break.

Wesley Forfana saw a powerful header tipped over the crossbar a minute into the second half.

Chelsea escaped on 66 minutes when a crisp Foxes attack and terrible defending, notably Kepa who came for a cross and missed it, saw Gallagher hack the ball off the line.

Ward then denied a powerful header from Havertz from ending up at the back of the net in a see-saw game of errors and poor defending.

Kepa made another clumsy attempt to parry the ball away but he failed and Dewsbury-Hall needed only to tuck the ball home. Incredibly he missed and the ball went wide of Chelsea’s goal

Head coach Graham Potter made a double substitution, bringing on Christin Pulisic and Trevoh Chalobah – off went Chilwell and Loftus-Cheek.

Mudryk had the embarrassment of celebrating a breakaway goal in the corner of the ground with his supporters that he did not realise he was offside for quite a while.

But on 77 minutes, Havertz broke free on the left, the ball was whipped across goal where Mudryk headed it back to in-running Mateo Kovacic who expertly volleyed home.

But again VAR intervened and this time adjudged that no offside by either Havertz nor Mudryk took place and the Blues went 3-1 up.

That was Mudryk’s last action and he was replaced by Carney Chukwuemeka.

Next to come on for Chelsea was Benoit Badiashile for Forfana with four minutes left on the clock.

A silly late challenge by Wout Faes, who already had a yellow card, saw a second and then a red.

It was game over.

Teams: Chelsea, Kepa, Koulibaly, Forfana, Chilwell, Enzo, Kovacic, Felix, Loftus-Cheek, Mudryk, Havertz, Cucurella 

Subs: Badiashile, Pulisic, Bettinelli, Chalobah, Zakaria, Ziyech, Gallagher, Chukwuemeka, Madueke

Leicester City, Sarr, Faes, Maddison, Iheanacho, Souter, Amartey, Dhaka, Ricardo, Dewsbury-Hall, Mendy, Castaneda

Subs: Evans, Barnes, Vardy, Ndidi, Praet, Iversen, Thomas, Tete, Soumare

Referee: André Marriner