Leicester beaten by Chelsea thanks to an old friend

N’Golo Kante came back to haunt Leicester as the Foxes slumped to their third defeat in four games, falling 2-1 to Champions Chelsea at the King Power.

With former Leicester man Danny Drinkwater making his return 9 days after his big money move to Chelsea, this was certainly one clash Foxes fans were dying to win.

In the early stages Chelsea kept the bulk of possession, but struggled to create many chances, largely due to the brilliance of Wes Morgan, who was a dominating presence at the heart of the defence.

That said, the first clear-cut chance of the game fell to the visitors as Morata just narrowly missed getting on the end of a perfectly-timed ball over the top by Fabregas.

Meanwhile Leicester classically looked to test Chelsea on the break, something that was made far easier by Fabregas and his inability to deliver a proper corner. The Foxes had their first chance of the game in the 25th minute after an unsuccessful corner attempt by Chelsea was cleared, eventually won back in midfield and played into Riyad Mahrez, who set Vardy through with a delightful ball. Unfortunately for Leicester, Vardy’s angled strike flew wide, but the intent singled that the Foxes just might get something out of the game.

As halftime neared Leicester continued to hold firm, only to be handed a golden chance to take the lead after a comical corner from Chelsea saw Islam Slimani push Kante aside at the edge of the penalty area and play it forward to Mahrez. With Vardy his side and only one Chelsea player to beat, the Algerian powered towards the box before picking out Slimani with a neat reverse pass. Unfortunately for Leicester Courtois was able to spread himself and come up with a stunning save to keep the score level.

Chelsea took the lead moments later after Azpilicueta picked out Morata, who rose above Morgan to open the scoring on the nick of halftime. After looking like the favourites to take the lead, to being a goal down in the span of a minute, it certainly was a frustrating end to the half, and from there things went from bad to worse.

Craig Shakespeare made a tactical change to open the second half, with Slimani and Marc Albrighton being replaced by Demari Gray and Andy King to slot into a 4-2-3-1 formation, but before the Foxes could get anything going Chelsea doubled their lead through Kante, who was given plenty of time on the edge of the area to have a strike at goal.

Somehow what looked like a tame shot crept through the area and into the bottom right corner of the net. Considering his positioning and the lack of power on the strike, it was certainly something most fans would expect Kasper Schmeichel to save, but instead Leicester found themselves 2-0 down with very little hope of getting back into things.

Vardy handed Leicester a lifeline after being hacked down by Courtois and earning a penalty, which he fiercely slotted home to make the score 2-1 in the 61st minute, but Chelsea managed to slow Leicester’s momentum and survive a late scramble in stoppage time to win the game.

The loss leaves Leicester sitting just above the relegation places, but considering the difficulty of the opening few fixtures it’s certainly not a time to panic. The partnership of Maguire and Morgan has looked excellent, while Vardy’s bang on form. Next week’s fixture against newly-promoted Huddersfield Town should be a good indicator of where Leicester will finish this season, but for now there’s plenty of positives to take from a difficult start to the season.