Leicester City move up to second after beating Arsenal 2-0 to pile more pressure on Unai Emery
Leicester City’s fantastic season continued as they beat Arsenal 2-0 to move into second place in the Premier League for 24 hours at least.
Goals from Jamie Vardy and James Maddison condemned the misfiring Gunners to their third defeat of the campaign putting beleaguered boss Unai Emery under yet more pressure.
With no wins in their last four league games, speculation over the Spaniard’s future is set to intensify, despite previous reassurances from the Arsenal hierarchy that his job is safe.
For the Foxes, with Manchester City facing table-topping Liverpool on Sunday, the Foxes know that defeat for Pep Guardiola’s side will keep them above the Champions going into the latest international break.
While Brendan Rodgers’ side kept maintained their unbeaten record at the King Power Stadium this season, it was another dismal away display from Arsenal.
The first major talking point came after ten minutes when Leicester thought they had a strong appeal for a penalty after Guendouzi appeared to pull back Caglar Soyuncu.
The Arsenal man clearly had an arm of the defender’s shoulder as Ben Chilwell’s cross was delivered in the box, however, the referee, and VAR, seemingly decided that Soyuncu had gone to ground too easily.
Arsenal almost took the lead shortly after following a sweeping move forward involving Ozil, Torriera, Bellerin resulting in the Spanish full back getting to the byline to cut the ball back. After falling to the feet of Lacazette, the Frenchman was unable to find the target from close range when he really should have scored.
The Foxes responded as Ayoze Perez then found space on the right hand side and fired a ball across the Arsenal box that Chambers was able to clear before it reached a waiting Vardy.
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Leicester looked the more likely to open the scoring and pushed Arsenal deeper as the half wore on.
A sloppy pass by Bellerin was picked up by Perez once again but his long range effort went sailing over Leno’s crossbar before another cross from the right almost found Vardy at the far post but Chambers’ vital touch kept the scores at 0-0.
Madison then saw his free kick clip top of Leno’s goal net but Arsenal’s were able to hold on until the break.
The Foxes picked up where they left off after the break however and game close to breaking the deadlock within three minutes of the restart when Wilfred Ndidi saw his effort come crashing off the crossbar following great work from Ricardo Pereira cutting the ball back on the right hand side.
Arsenal needed some inspiration and it almost came through Bellerin but his shot after a raid forward whistled over the crossbar.
The Gunners then thought they’d taken the lead after Aubameyang swept home from Kolasinac’s cross but the assistant referee rightly flagged the striker offside.
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Brendan Rodgers introduced Demarai Gray into the proceedings and he soon tested Leno with a long range effort the German keeper was grateful to clutch at his chest.
Leicester finally found the breakthrough following a scintillating move on the edge of the box which eventually saw Tielemans play the ball to an unmarked Jamie Vardy to stab home.
It was the striker’s ninth goal in ten appearances against the Gunners and his 11th league goal of the season - taking him back to the top of the scoring charts ahead of Chelsea’s Tammy Abraham.
Vardy then turned provider as Leicester continued to push on, laying the ball off the James Maddison to fire the ball into Leno’s bottom right hand corner to kill off the game as a contest.
The result means Leicester are a point better off than they were at the same stage of their title winning campaign and a team on the up while Arsenal look like a team hurtling in the opposite direction.
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