Joe Ledley 55That Leicester City failed to score, and therefore take a single point, from a match in which they created five good chances for every one created by their opponents makes it very hard to see how Nigel Pearson’s Foxes can possibly stay up now.As it was, Joe Ledley’s second-half header was enough for Palace to increase the gap between these sides from four points to seven. With other teams at the bottom also picking up points, and Leicester’s next three fixtures seeing them travel to Arsenal, Everton and Manchester City, the optimism generated by a useful run of results around Christmas has been comprehensively dissipated.
Pearson made five changes to the side beaten at Manchester United, and if the return of Algeria midfielder Riyad Mahrez was generally expected, and welcomed, that of the veteran forward David Nugent may have been less so, given it meant £9.7m record signing Andrej Kramaric dropping to the bench. Esteban Cambiasso partnered Matty James in central midfield.
Palace manager Alan Pardew made two changes to the team beaten by Everton. With Marouane Chamakh unavailable due to a broken nose, and Mile Jedinak yet to recover from Australia’s Asia Cup exertions, new £4.5m signing Jordon Mutch was given a first start, while Wilfried Zaha came in for Yaya Sanogo up front.
There was, alas, no room on the bench for Keshi Anderson, the striker whose transfer window signing from Southern League Division One Central side Barton Rovers captured the imagination of football’s few remaining romantics.
Playground-standard miskicks by Danny Simpson and Jeffrey Schlupp in the opening minutes made it a nervous start for City supporters, though there was reassurance to be had in the manner in which Mark Schwarzer – making his home debut – came out to claim Palace’s early crosses into his penalty area.
At the other end, Nugent, offered a chance to test Palace goalkeeper Julian Speroni after being found in space by Mahrez, tried, and failed miserably, to float a cross to the far post instead. Soon afterwards Wes Morgan headed a corner down and straight into the hands of Speroni, but as the half hour approached Leicester began to build a head of steam.
First Mahrez skinned Martin Kelly in the Palace area and drove in a low shot, which the diving Speroni touched back into the six-yard box and Cambiasso very nearly turned into the empty goal, and then Nugent, running away from goal, twisted to head Mahrez’s corner against the angle of post and bar.
Schlupp was the next to go close, allowed the time to chest down a Nugent cross and before firing in a low, bouncing volley that Speroni saved two-handed to his left.
Pardew made a double switch at half-time, Brede Hangeland replacing Scott Dann, still suffering the effects of a sickening clash of heads with Wes Morgan, and Sanogo coming on for Mutch, with Dwight Gayle dropping back behind the French striker.
Initially Leicester continued to look likeliest to score, as Paul Konchesky’s low cross shot was almost turned in by the sliding Ulloa, but Sanogo’s presence quickly became a factor. It was he who won the corner that Hangeland headed back across goal for Ledley to head off the shoulder off Marcin Wasilewski and past Schwarzer.
City looked certain to equalise almost immediately when Nugent intercepted a back-pass and rounded Speroni, only to decide the angle was too narrow to turn the ball home. Instead he tried to cut the ball back to Cambiasso, but the Argentine could not control, and the chance went begging.
Pearson sent on Marc Albrighton, then two more strikers in Kramaric and Jamie Vardy in a desperate attempt to salvage something. Vardy came close to doing exactly that, first with a glancing header, and then with a powerful shot from an angle, but Speroni blocked both. Pearson’s frustration was evident when he unnecessarily held on to James McArthur’s shirt after the Palace player accidentally upended him after making a tackle near the touchline.
Guardian
