Riyad Mahrez stuns Southampton to lift Leicester closer to safety
Leicester 2 - 0 SouthamptonRiyad Mahrez 7
Riyad Mahrez 19
Riyad Mahrez scores Leicester's second against Southampton in the Premier League at the King Power
Nigel Pearson is taking the National Three Peaks Challenge next Sunday but his Leicester City side may have already conquered the biggest mountain on their horizon by then: Premier League survival. With a trip to Sunderland looming large next Saturday, the Leicester manager could be planting flags at the top of Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike and Snowdon with the club’s own top-grade status assured.
Who would have thought that two months ago, before this incredible run of six wins in seven games? Yet this sequence has been necessary and, on 37 points, Leicester still have work to do. “It’s been tough,” Pearson said, “when you think of this pretty unthinkable set of results, in terms of our season overall, we’ve needed them. When you look at the wins the other teams in the relegation battle have achieved, it’s amazing.
“Our players have shown a lot of determination and quality but we need to show it again in the last two games because the sides we’re facing are teams still involved in the relegation battle. We were not at our best today but we showed a lot of discipline when we didn’t have the ball.”
“We are staying up” rang around the King Power Stadium at the end of this latest triumph that came courtesy of two goals from Riyad Mahrez in the opening 20 minutes accompanied by a fourth clean sheet in five games. With Queens Park Rangers due here on the last day of the season, Leicester look all but safe. It will have been one hell of a climb.
If Southampton’s performance in the opening 20 minutes suggested they were on the beach, Leicester were in paradise. With Pearson able to field an unchanged starting lineup from last Saturday’s 3-0 dismissal of Newcastle United, Tom Meighan and Serge from Kasabian joined Steve Walsh, a veteran of Martin O’Neill’s 1990s Filbert Street gang, on the pitch beforehand to ramp up the atmosphere and it was no surprise when Leicester went ahead.
If they could have chosen their opponents, Southampton would have been a contender. With one point from six away games, Ronald Koeman’s cultured side seem to be making a bid to drop out of the Europa League placings.
With Mahrez playing in the hole behind a dynamic front two, Leicester’s urgency again reaped early rewards. The Algerian collected the ball centrally and shaped to go out to the left. Instead, he cut back inside Steven Davis and from 20 yards drilled a crisp left-footed shot into the bottom corner of Paulo Gazzaniga’s net.
Not even a nasty-looking knee injury to Matty James could dampen Leicester’s bite for the fight. When Leonardo Ulloa flicked on a return header for Jamie Vardy to reach down the inside-left channel, the ensuing cross found Mahrez in unexpected space at the near post. He stabbed home his shot, left-footed, with ease, even if Gazzaniga got a hand on the ball.
For the rest of the game, Leicester were content to sit deep, clear their lines in rudimentary fashion and allow Southampton the lion’s share of possession; or should that be the mouse’s share? Although Sadio Mané headed over from close range halfway through the first half, and dispatched a 25-yard lob that Kasper Schmeichel did well to tip over midway through the second, the truth was that Southampton were in a lower gear. They simply had less at stake and it showed. Rarely can 70% of possession have delivered so little.
“It’s difficult to explain,” Koeman said. “Leicester are full of confidence, they are fighting against relegation, fighting for their life and it makes them difficult to beat. Today they showed good quality, good organisation and unbelievable spirit.”
Mahrez sent Vardy galloping between Southampton’s two central defenders with ease but the No9’s shot was saved by Gazzaniga’s legs. Schmeichel tipped over Toby Alderweireld’s free-kick from distance just before half-time but Leicester deserved their advantage.
Increasingly, they defended with a five-man back line, with two anchormen just in front, relying on breakaways through the pace of Vardy or the ingenuity of David Nugent when he came on. They had already done more than enough. Pearson has just earned Leicester’s first top-flight manager of the month award for 15 years. Is he now a contender for manager of the year?
Guardian