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Leicester City goes eight points clear at the top of the Barclay's Premier League table after today's thrashing of Swansea City at the King Power Stadium.The Foxes came into the game without their star striker, Jamie Vardy, but a great all around display by the home side ensured an easy victory, successfully eliminating Arsenal and Manchester City from the title race in the process.
Similar to last week against West Ham, the home side looked slightly nervy coming out of the gate, allowing a fairly dangerous cross to pass through the goalmouth in the opening minute from Wayne Routledge. The Foxes began to pick themselves up in the latter stages of the opening 10 minutes, retaining some pressure in the Swan's half, but thanks mostly to some sloppy passing and a lack of a final ball, nothing was able to come of it.
That is, until Swansea captain Ashley Williams misplayed what should have been a simple clearance near the edge of his side's penalty box, his ball smacking Riyad Mahrez, who graciously accepted the gift, slotting the ball into the bottom corner of the Swan's goal. That tally gave the Foxes the early 1-0 lead.
That seemed to ease the nerves of the home side, as they began to look much more threatening on the attack, thanks greatly to Jeffrey Schlupp who was at his best today, providing a Vardy-esque element to the game and constantly proving to be an issue on the counter with his blistering pace an some clever touches in and around the area.
The Foxes struck blood once again at the half hour mark after a beautifully struck free kick by Danny Drinkwater found the head of Leonardo Ulloa, who easily guided it into the back of the net to put the Foxes in cruise control going into halftime with a 2-0 lead.
The visitors started the second half off a bit sharper, maintaining possession but unable to break down the compact Leicester defense for the most part. As Swansea began to over-commit themselves they were caught on the break in the 60th minute, with a brilliant run from Schlupp off a Kasper Schmeichel throw, with the Ghanaian international squaring it to Ulloa who slotted home his second of the match, making it 3-0 to the home side and putting the nail in Swansea's coffin. With the Foxes only continuing to turn on the style, the home side spent a solid 20 minutes whipping shots at the opposing goal and running circles around the defense in the process. It could have been 5 or 6 with some great strikes from Andy King and Schlupp once again. The final goal came from some brilliant work down the right flank by Demarai Gray, who slotted in a beauty of a pass into the box, with the ensuing scramble resulting in a goal from Marc Albrighton, who had only entered the game moments before to make it 4-0.
It was a dominant display from Leicester without their main man leading the lines. Next week the Foxes travel to Old Trafford where they take on Manchester United and with a further Vardy suspension potentially in the cards, but for now eight points clear and the first ever first division title within the Foxes grasp.