Leicester falls flat in 2-1 opening defeat at Hull City

Leicester City started their title defending campaign on a loss, falling 2-1 to newly promoted Hull City at the KC Stadium, becoming the first Premier League winner to drop their opening match.

It was a lacklustre display from the Foxes, looking particularly vulnerable on set pieces, and struggling to break down the resilient Hull side.

In the first half Leicester looked the more likely of the two sides to score thanks to some decent link up play between Danny Drinkwater and Riyad Mahrez. Ahmed Musa did well to get in behind the Hull defence a couple of times, but no breakthrough came of it. Jamie Vardy seemed rusty from the kickoff, missing a couple of clear cut chances that we would've expected to find the back of the net last season.

Still, aside from the set piece threat, Hull didn't look to have much else to their game, with Leicester building momentum as the opening half dwindled.

Curtis Davies put in a Man of the Match display for Hull, leading from the back and winning the vast majority of Leicester's balls over the top. On the attacking side of the ball he got the better of Wes Morgan in the air on a couple of occasions, the second time resulting in the opening goal. Kasper Schmeichel did well to deny Davies's initial header, but his clearance was slotted home in acrobatic fashion by Adama Diomandé, who looked to be Hull's greatest attacking threat, constantly running at the Leicester defence and often making something of those runs.

Leicester went into the break down 1-0, but appeared far from out of it. They came out looking up and energized with Demari Gray winning a penalty moments after the whistle blew. Although it really should've been a free-kick, no Leicester fan was complaining over that questionable call from Mike Dean. Mahrez slotted the penalty home, and after that it seemed that if any team was going on to score a second it would be Leicester.

Unfortunately, Leicester's defence wasn't at its finest today. Schmeichel completely missed a throw out to Gray, starting a 2-on-1 break for Hull which finished with a wonderful volley from Robert Snodgrass, pretty much killing any confidence Leicester had.

The rest of the second half can be summed up as poor for Leicester, and that's putting it lightly. Mahrez completely faded, losing the ball at a constant rate. Vardy was completely taken out of the game, while Musa definitely showed he has some defined weaknesses, specifically his weak game in the air.

Overall it's a worrying start for Leicester, especially defensively, but it's not exactly time to panic yet. It's the first game of the season, everyone's still working on getting back to Premier League form and fitness. Still, points from next weeks match against Arsenal are close to a must.