Leicester City back in business with a 2-1 win over Swansea

With a 2-1 victory over Swansea City, that was for the most part comfortable, it feels safe to say that Leicester City are back in business. The Foxes were much improved last week against Arsenal and continued to look better again against the Welsh outfit. Even biblical level storms and rain couldn’t halt the boys in blue today.

For almost the entire duration of the second half, torrential rain, accompanied by thunder and lightning, hit Leicester and lashed down on the King Power. As the game drew to an end, the pitch was flooding and the ball was moving unpredictably but this didn’t dampen the feeling of getting that first win of the season on the board. Even if we were all drenched head to toe by the time we got home.

The first half was the Leicester side that I so enjoyed watching last year. Attacking, full of desire and always looking dangerous going forward. Some of the passing football, the sheer quickness of it, was brilliant and we enjoyed a large amount of possession. Generally, we kept Swansea pretty much at bay, Gylfi Sigurdsson their brightest player in the first half, but only allowed several half chances from just outside the box that Kasper Schmeichel saved. We dominated and were worthy of more than the one goal we scored. It was a great goal though, Drinkwater putting in a pinpoint ball for the England striker to run onto and a very well taken one on one opportunity. Though it was only 1-0 at half-time, the away side probably felt relieved to finish just one goal behind. It wasn’t a reassuring performance from the away side, who only began to look brighter in the second half after our penalty miss and as conditions deteriorated and almost every ball became a 50/50 chance, the scoreline ultimately flattering them.

It was a vintage Vardy goal, a firm sign that he was back to his best. Swansea’s high pressing full-backs allowed him a lot of space to chase down balls and to work off the defender’s shoulder as he’s so good at. He scored from one such instance and was unlucky not to get another after more great link-up play, this time with Mahrez. Even his cocky goal celebration was very much him at his best, and happiest. He was allowed more space and freedom than a striker of his quality should be and we were able to exploit the Swans’ defence often, but not quite able to finish the moves off.

The striker was helped by the tireless Shinji Okazaki. He played longer than he usually does today, so important was his role. The way that he occupies and dictates the space between Vardy and our midfield simply cannot be overlooked, or downplayed when handing out credit. His confidence has increased tenfold, but it could be raised so much by him scoring the goal that his work-rate deserves. It’s frustrating when such hard work is under appreciate, while many are finally beginning to properly appreciate Okazaki, there are still some in the team whose efforts go unnoticed, or are dismissed.

Leicester’s second came from a more unlikely source, captain Wes Morgan, who found a corner ball landed precisely at his feet. So rather than the header you might expect for a man of his size, it was a simple kick into the back of the net. He’s been knocking on the door in our other two games and looked very happy to be the goalscorer. It rounded off a fantastic game for him as well. I still struggle to believe that only two seasons ago, we wondered if he’d be able to adapt to the Premier League. No such worries ever cross my mind now, he looks natural when commanding our back-line. The entire defence played very well, conceding aside, even when the pitch got far trickier to navigate. I thought Christian Fuchs in particular looked strong again and Robert Huth was unlucky not to be given some kind of decision for being fouled repeatedly in the box.

Missing N’Golo Kante? Chances are if you’re a Leicester fan, you’re not anymore. In place of the injured Papy Mendy, Claudio Ranieri opted to try out last January’s singing, Daniel Amartey, having already experimented with Andy King to a less successful degree. Amartey hasn’t had a settled or stable role in the side since joining us, making it difficult to tell how he would cope, or whether he would be the answer to partnering Danny Drinkwater. In short, that answers appears to be a resounding yes! Turning in a man of the match performance, the Ghanaian won over Foxes fans quickly against Swansea.

We were told upon his arrival that he’s an outstanding athlete and he proved that today, endless energy and pursuit of the ball providing exactly what we needed. With his defensive experience playing a part, his tackles were accurate and often vital in winning back the ball or breaking up Swansea’s attacks. His first half was overall better than the second, but it says a lot that the weather played such a big factor in the second half, which possibly didn’t help with the one or two tackles that he did miss. The early signs for this partnership though, are very promising. He seems to free Drinkwater up to go and attack and be that driving creative force.

Talking of Danny Drinkwater, I’m at risk of sounding like a broken record but he was outstanding today, again. Some of his forward passes were simply inspired, I cannot wait to see a replay of his pass into Vardy for the opening goal. Call it bias but I fail to see a better English midfielder right now, so it will be a travesty if he’s not named in Sam Allardyce’s first England team. He’s proven over the last few months that he’s consistent in his levels of performance and he was involved in almost every single attacking move for Leicester.

From a team performance point of view, this was much more like it. Some have mentioned that they didn’t think Riyad Mahrez was at his best today. His incredibly casual penalty take aside, I don’t quite agree with this. His only problem seems to be that he’s less unknown this year. Last season, his personal displays were nothing short of magical, but a lot of it came down to unpredictability. As the season went on, we saw more and more players deployed to keep him at bay and it’s been much the same this season. Yes, he’s not entirely back to his usual self, but today he was working hard, chipping in with all aspects of the game and there’s signs that it won’t be long until he wows us again.

There weren’t really many negatives from this game for Leicester. We were a little shocked when the PA announcer rang out the substitution of Kasper Schmeichel later into the game. Unbeknown to us, the goalkeeper has been suffering with a hernia problem and will undergo a planned operation early next week to correct it. He probably didn’t help it by charging out of the box to make a tackle on the Swansea attacker bearing down on him. He came away with the ball, and managed to head it further away, but likely didn’t do himself any favours. His departure granted us a debut for Ron Robert Zieler who had to try and navigate a very soaked penalty area, ultimately succumbing to conceding the Swansea goal.

On a more clinical day, we’d have finished off the game long before Mahrez’s softly struck penalty was saved by Fabianski, but the three points are all we wanted and is a positive, or frustrating time to head into the international break depending on how you view momentum. One thing is for sure, Ranieri won’t be panic buying as the transfer window closes, we have no reason to.