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Leicester City are seriously lacking key Premier League safety ingredient as problems mount
Leicester City suffered their sixth Premier League defeat of the season on Saturday as Enzo Maresca's Chelsea ran out 2-1 winners at the King Power Stadium.
Nicolas Jackson made the most of terrible defending from Wout Faes to put the visitors ahead before Enzo Fernandez doubled their lead. Jordan Ayew grabbed a consolation in injury time from the penalty spot but it came too late for Steve Cooper's men to salvage a point.
It continues Leicester's poor run of form that goes all the way back to the defeat to Nottingham Forest. Since beating Southampton on October 19, City have lost four of their last five games, drawing the other to Ipswich Town thanks to Ayew's injury-time strike.
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When the full-time whistle went shortly before 2.30pm on Saturday, there was a strange feeling around the stadium. Did anyone really expect Leicester to beat this Chelsea team, who were third before kick-off? No, probably not, but the performance almost had a feeling of defeatism among supporters.
Going into this hectic festive schedule, Leicester find themselves in a relegation battle. It's where Cooper would have expected his side to be but that doesn't mean it's accepted. When you take away any immediate post-match thoughts or grumbles from the Chelsea defeat, there is an alarming problem facing Leicester and this squad.
In the Premier League, there are no survivors and the Foxes have been punished for errors, even marginal ones, too many times this season. On countless occasions in the first 12 games, Leicester have shot themselves in the foot and gifted their opponents chances to hurt them.
Against Chelsea, the manner of how the first goal went in via Faes was a carbon copy of Chris Wood's humorous goal for Nottingham Forest last month. Faes, a Belgium international, failed to deal with a bouncing ball three times, allowing Jackson to physically get the better of him.
The second one, whilst perhaps more unfortunate, is difficult to comprehend. With James Justin down injured, Leicester took almost a lifetime to organise themselves before Fernandez was presented the freedom of Leicestershire inside the box to head home. The Argentinian evaded Victor Kristiansen too easily to latch on to Mads Hermansen's save.
As a team battling it out at the bottom of the Premier League, defensive fragilities are expected. Mistakes, though, are not and Leicester are learning the true reality of top-flight football the hard way. Despite this, it isn't their biggest downfall.
The consistent lack of quality in the final third is something of a concern. Apart from the game against Ipswich, when they recorded four big chances and still only scored once, Leicester are struggling to lay punches on their opponents. They had one shot on target against Forest, only one big chance at Manchester United and had to wait until Ayew's penalty to register a shot at Robert Sanchez's goal.
Losing Abdul Fatawu is a big blow for City and Cooper. The Leicester boss reiterated that he didn’t want any negativity around his absence, but without the 20-year-old's confidence and flair, City looked lost in attack against Maresca's men and in the majority of their games.
Under Cooper, it's easy to make comparisons to his Nottingham Forest team that stayed in the Premier League in 2023, at Leicester's expense. They relied on the quality from Morgan Gibbs-White, Taiwo Awoniyi, Brennan Johnson and Chris Wood.
Currently, Leicester are relying on Jamie Vardy, who really struggled against Chelsea's defence on Saturday, and individual moments of magic as witnessed against Bournemouth, Ipswich and Southampton.
Fortunately for Cooper, or unfortunately, there is a schedule waiting for him to correct the wrongs. Leicester travel to Brentford next Saturday before taking on fellow strugglers West Ham United. The issues are there to be had and for all to see, Leicester can not afford to let the season slip through their fingers like it did two years ago.
