Chelsea lose 2-0 to Foxes as pressure on head coach Lampard is ramped up

By Paul Lagan at the King Power Stadium

Leicester City 2 v Chelsea 0

Only one team went top of the Premier League tonight and it was not Chelsea who were well beaten 2-0 by Leicester City and the Blues sit uncomfortably in eight position.

Twice VAR ruled against Chelsea – one for a penalty and another for a Timo Werner volleyed goal, but both were correct decisions.

Pressure on Head Coach Frank Lampard will be ramped up to the highest possible level as his charges were second best in all departments and just as crucially tactically and with game management.

The Blues face Luton Town in the FA Cup at the weekend, and it’s debatable if Lampard will be in charge at this point. 

Chelsea were all at sea from a free-kick on six minutes when Harvey Barnes cut in a simple byline cross, that Tammy Abraham put away for a corner.

Seconds later from the resultant short corner, the ball fell to Wilfred Ndidi just outside the Chelsea area and he plonked a vicious left-footer that smacked off Mendy’s right post and in to the back of the net to open the score for the home side after seven minutes.

Abraham almost costed down a Callum Hudson-Odoi cross on 12 minutes but the ball wasn’t cushioned enough and it bounced away from him and was cleared.

Chelsea could have gone two up on 15 minutes when James Maddison rattled the crossbar with a long ranger as the Londoners look clueless, unable to cope with the Foxes sly counter-attacks.

A nice one-two between Reece James and Hudson-Odoi saw James thump an angled shot that Kapser  Schmeichel parried away for a corner. Thiago Silva hit a goal-bound header from the corner kick and Schmeichel was again equal to it, punching it clear.

Mendy was then called into action to tip over the crossbar a Marc Albrighton 25-yarder on 25 minutes.

Hudson-Odoi should have dome better on 33 min utes when a quick break by the Blues saw the winger, free on the right. He raced into the Foxes box, but sliced a right-footer into the side-netting, Schmeichel just watched it nonchalantly.

Jamie Vardy broke free on the lefty a minute later from the half-way line, leaving Ben Chilwell for dead. He tried to chip Mendy, but the goalkeeper managed to get his hand to the ball and Toni Rudiger managed to clear the ball away from te goal line.

Craig Pawson gave a penalty when Christian Pulisic appeared to be clipped by Jonny Evans. But VAR decided that the challenge was just outside the area and changed his decision to a free-kick six minutes from the break.

Mount’s resultant free kick was well high and wide.

Disaster struck two minutes later when Maddison took advantage of the ball dropping past Vardy just inside the Chelsea area and the midfielder smashed the ball home past Mendy to make it 2-0.

There were no changes by either side at half time.

James Justin should have made it 3-0 four minutes after the restart but his free header at the far post inched just wide of goal.

Abraham twice had half-chances to pull one back for the Blues, both times Schmeichel snaffled the ball.

From a Mount corner the ball fell to James, but the ball bounced harmlessly into Schmeichel’s grasp.

The home side had the ball in the back of the net from Albrighton on 54 minutes, but the midfielder was well offside.

Mendy spared Chelsea’s blushes when the stopper thwarted Youri Tielemans who raced free into the Chelsea area on a counter-attack.

Head coach Frank Lampard decided he had seen enough and changes were needed. Hakim Ziyech and Timo Werner replaced Hudson-Odoi and Havertz – both on 68 minutes.

Vardy almost did what Vardy does best, beat the offside, race into te oppositions’ penalty area and score. This time, the final part eluded him with 10 minutes on the clock, as mendy managed to snap then ball off the striker’s boot.

VAR checked a possible offside goal as Werner volleyed home with five minutes left. Sadly for the Londoners – it decided the German was offside.

That was as good as it got for them in the half, and the Foxes cruised to see out the remaining minutes.

Teams: 

Chelsea: Mendy, James, Thiago Silva, Rudiger, Chilwell, Havertz, Kovacic, Mount, Hudson-Odoi, Abraham, Pulisic 

Subs: Kepa, Christensen, Jorginho, Werner, Zouma, Ziyech, Gilmour, Azpilicueta, Emerson 

Subs

Leicester City: Schmeichel, Justin, Forfana, Evans Tielemans, Vardy, Maddison, Albrighton, Barnes,Ndidi, Castagne

Subs: Soyuncu, Ward, Ineanacho, Ayoze, Amartey, Under, Choudhury, Ricardo, Thomas

Referee: Craig Pawson