Current champions Leicester City took on the former champions from 2014-15, Chelsea in a repeat of last season’s final match day fixture. Lot has changed since then, Kante has changed shades of Blue, new head at the helm for Chelsea and most of all Ranieri’s woes have increased dramatically as his side resided in the bottom half of the table. Chelsea were coming into this game with a three match unbeaten run in all competitions. The Blues had previously defeated the Foxes in the League cup third round in extra time.
Leicester benched Mahrez and Slimani and started with Schlupp and Musa up front. While the Blues were missing their winger Willian who lost his mother to cancer earlier this week. Conte reassured his trust in Victor Mosses, Terry was also not match fit and the back four comprised of Luiz Azpilicueta, Cahill and Marcus Alonso. Ivanovic was also not in the line up.
Chelsea remained dominant throughout the game. They came out all guns blazing and looked more like a defending champion side than Leicester. The first goal came in only the seventh minute when Wes Morgan’s marking skills went to waste as he lost Diego Costa who converted into an open goal. The assist came from Nemanja Matic’s flick. Costa extended his lead as the top scorer. From there onwards, Chelsea’s fluid passing and build up play seemed to cause more panic amongst the Foxes defense. In the 33rd minute Hazard found himself at the end of a fumbling ball amongst two Leicester defenders, the ball fell to his feet and he paved his way around Schmeichel and scored Chelsea’s second goal.
Leicester did make three changes in the second half bringing on Mahrez, Slimani and Andy King but to no avail as Chelsea kept the dominance for longer periods of time in the second half as well. The defense looked resolute with no silly passes from either Cahill or Luiz. The Blues had to make 23 clearances and kept 55 percent of the possession. That possession did eventually churn up an excellent goal as Moses linked up with Chalobah to score a delightful third goal.
This was Leicester’s fourth consecutive away defeat which moves them down to 13th place, two points from the bottom. The win also moves Chelsea onto fifth place level on points with Liverpool who have a game in hand against Manchester United on Monday.
Speaking to the press after the game Ranieri admitted to his teams faults and the poor run of form away from home
“When you concede a goal from a corner again it is clear: you come to Chelsea and your attention must be at the maximum. We made mistakes. We tried to react and the second half was much better. Now we must react because we have the Champions League on Tuesday.
“If we scored the goal when we create a chance we can re-open the match. But our approach to the match was not good. Maybe we were a little nervous. It is better that this happens now and we can react than at the end of the season. We must concentrate more. We miss him [N’Golo Kante] – but we have to play better.”
Chelsea now face United next week which can give them the opportunity to put some distance between them and the Red Devils while Leicester go onto face Kobenhavn in the group stage match.
