Leicester sit two points above the relegation zone after a painful 2-1 loss to Sunderland

Leicester City continued their abysmal run of away form with a 2-1 lost to relegation favorites Sunderland. The Foxes taking 13 points from 14 games is officially the worst title defense in Premier League history, with a relegation scrap looking inevitable.

Sunderland came out of the gates far more eager, throwing pressure at the Leicester backline, which looked feeble and unprotected at the best of times. Patrick Van Aanholt was causing all kinds of problems down Leicester’s right hand side. The fullback cut inside giving the ball to Victor Anichebe, whose first-time shot was blocked by an outstretched Wes Morgan in the 4^th minute. Morgan was called into action again moments later, getting a crucial touch in to deny Van Aanholt a shot before throwing in another goal saving block to deny Jermaine Defoe at close range.

It seemed like a Sunderland goal was inevitable as the ball fell to the feet of Defoe again, yet somehow the striker managed to scuff his shot from 8 yards to keep the score at 0-0.

After the 20 minute mark Leicester finally began to find their footing, but lacked any form of end product. Jamie Vardy missed a couple free headers, one off an excellent Christian Fuchs cross sailing wide of the goal in the 24^th minute, a chance that looked easier to score than to miss.

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Leicester continued their run of pressure, Islam Slimani and Riyad Mahrez linking up. Slimani’s ball to Mahrez on the touchline looked extremely promising as the winger cut the ball back, putting it on a plate for Vardy to tap-in, only for Van Aanholt to get a crucial touch in before it could reach the Leicester striker.

Christian Fuchs proceeded to smack the upright on a cross just before halftime, capping off a bright 20 minutes for the Foxes.

They took this momentum into the second half as Leicester nearly found an opener in the 55^th minute. Marc Albrighton put in a dangerous cross, which Vardy left for Slimani to slot home, only for the powerful shot to be blocked before it could reach goal.

Unfortunately from there the Foxes seemed to fall asleep and it came as no surprise when substitute Jan Kirchhoff found acres of space in the City box off a corner, his weak header taking an unfortunate deflection off Robert Huth and into the bottom corner of the net to make it 1-0 to the hosts.

There zero response from the visitors and Sunderland soon had their second as some lackluster marking left Defoe with plenty of space to slot the ball home after a deflected Watmore effort, making it 2-0 and game over for the Foxes.

The visitors did pull one back on 80 minutes, with Demari Gray doing well to beat Jones down the left hand side, before slotting a powerful into the 6 yard box for Shinji Okazaki to latch onto to make it 2-1. But from there Sunderland set up shop, the only real chance at an equalizer for Leicester coming in the 95^th minute of stoppage time as the ball fell to Morgan, whose shot was superbly batted away by Jordan Pickford, the follow up sailing over the bar.

As a whole the Foxes were appalling, the central midfield pairing of Amartey and Andy King looking particularly bad. But overall, the visitors lacked even the basic ability to string more than three passes together and were outworked for the majority of the match. The search for an away win goes on with things looking rather grim as Leicester welcome Manchester City to the King Power next Saturday.