Leicester end winless rut with an emphatic 4-1 win at West Brom

Claude Puel made 5 changes to the side that drew 1-1 against Bournemouth, with Danny Simpson, Shinji Okazaki, Vicente Iborra, Demari Gray, and Ben Chilwell coming in with the task to end Leicester’s 5-game winless run.

Things started out about as poorly as they could have for the Foxes, as they conceded a rather comical goal in the 8th minute. In what looked to be an attempt to dispossess Burke down the right hand side, Chilwell basically fell down, getting nowhere near the ball or the man and allowing Burke to fizz a cross into the box. Rondon got ahead of Wes Morgan and toed the ball into the back of the net to give the hosts the 1-0 lead.

West Brom nearly doubled their lead 10 minutes later after a Krychowiak strike from outside the box took a deflection off Iborra and nearly dipped into the top corner of the net. Luckily for Leicester, Kasper Schmeichel, was up to get a hand to it to push it onto the crossbar to keep the score at 1-0.

Photo by Clive Mason/Getty Images

Leicester levelled up the scoring in 21st minute courtesy of a wonderful first time effort from Jamie Vardy. Riyad Mahrez pinged a ball over the West Brom defence. Vardy was able to easily outpace the two centre backs and volley home in spectacular fashion to level the scoring at 1-1.

From there the Foxes took control of the game and looked to push on for a second. Vardy thought he had it after latching on to a through ball from Chilwell and calmly slotting it into the back of the net, only to be rightly denied by the assistant’s flag.

The early stages of the second half offered more of the same. Both sides continued to leave themselves completely open in hopes of pushing on for a second goal.

Mahrez got that goal in the 62nd minute, after he was able to connect with a lovely ball over the top from substitute Kelechi Iheanacho. The Algerian took a touch and cleverly dinked it over the head of Foster to give the Foxes the 2-1 lead.

Iheanacho continued to make his presence felt for Leicester and finally topped it off with a goal in the 76th minute. The Nigerian was able to get his head on a cross into the box and direct it into the bottom corner to make it 3-1 and all but seal the win for the Foxes.

Iborra got into the action late in stoppage time, heading home a corner from close range to make it 4-1 and top off a great day for the Foxes.

With all the teams around them picking up points, the win ensures Leicester City remain in 8th place and 3 points off Burnley. With a favourable run of fixtures after next weekends FA Cup quarterfinal clash against Chelsea, a Europa League place is still a realistic goal for Claude Puel’s side.