Leicester City’s Nathan Dyer breaks Aston Villa in dramatic comebackLeicester 3 - 2 Aston VillaHome team scorersRitchie De Laet 72
Jamie Vardy 82
Nathan Dyer 89
Away team scorersJack Grealish 39
Carles Gil 63
Nathan Dyer beats Brad Guzan of Aston Villa to the ball to clinch Leicester City’s 3-2 win, before being clattered by the goalkeeper.
Aston Villa seemed to have floored their hosts when Carles Gil made it 2-0 midway through the second half but instead that goal turned out to be the catalyst to another extraordinary Leicester comeback. The club may have changed manager during the summer but they retain the jolting dynamism and enterprise that fuelled last season’s spectacular late surge out of the relegation zone and, contrary to most pre-season predictions, they now stand second in the Premier League.
Keen not to get carried away by the rising feelgood factor around the King Power Stadium, Claudio Ranieri insisted survival remains this season’s priority. “We have to stay focused, the goal is to stay in the Premier League,” he said. “It’s not March or April, only September. Afterwards we can dream but not now.” Ranieri said before this match that he was curious to see how his players would resume club action after the international break but if there was one thing that he must have known he could take for granted from this squad, then it was brio. Villa should have anticipated that, too, but the hosts’ early vivacity seemed to take the visitors by surprise. As did the late fightback.
Joleon Lescott, who endured a torrid debut for Villa, and Micah Richards were pestered into errors in the opening minutes and the latter was especially relieved that Danny Drinkwater’s shot from 25 yards flew over the bar.
Once they got to grips with Leicester’s zeal, Villa began to demonstrate the greater guile. Tim Sherwood’s side may be in the early stages of reconstruction – Jack Grealish and Ashley Westwood were the only two starters here who had begun May’s FA Cup final – but they showed encouraging cohesion and forced Leicester backwards. Soon it was the home team who looked anxious at the back.
A blunder by Robert Huth should have led to the opening score in the eighth minute but Gabriel Agbonlahor’s pass across the face of goal was too long for Scott Sinclair. A delightful Villa move six minutes later came to a similar end when Grealish overhit a cross from the byline. Grealish was then guilty of underhitting a shot from 16 yards.
Leicester were still dangerous on the break but Villa struck six minutes before half-time. A corner from Westwood triggered chaos around the home goal, with a header from Richards and a shot from Carlos Sánchez repelled before Grealish curled the ball beyond Kasper Schmeichel from the edge of the area. This was turning into an accomplished away performance. Or so it seemed.
If Leicester made a bright start to the first period, their start to the second was near to dazzling. Again Villa seemed caught in the headlights. Jeff Schlupp dashed past Leandro Bacuna and Gil in the 48th minute before crossing for Jamie Vardy, who fired into the side-netting. Brad Guzan then saved a 20-yard shot from Marc Albrighton. Moments later Richards made an excellent tackle to thwart Vardy after Leicester’s renewed pressing forced Villa to cough up possession.
Riyad Mahrez started producing the dribbles that have made him one of the outstanding players of the season so far. But Leicester were foxed by a textbook counterattack in the 63rd minute. Agbonlahor charged down the left and crossed for Gil, who executed the perfect finish from 18 yards.
Leicester hurtled forward anew. Vardy demanded a penalty after hitting the ground under a challenge from Bacuna. The pair squared up to each other as they debated the issue but Bacuna was not so lively from the following corner, allowing Ritchie De Laet to get the jump on him at the near post and divert the ball just over the line.
In the 82nd minute Mahrez served Drinkwater, who fizzed in a low cross. Vardy darted between two defenders to score from close range. Leicester did not settle for a point. Amid the raucous exhortations of the home crowd, Nathan Dyer showed he shares the boundless courage of his new team-mates by hurling himself at a Mahrez cross in the 89th minute, beating Guzan to it and catching the goalkeeper’s fist in his face as the ball rolled over the line.
“I’m devastated at the way it’s panned out‚” said Sherwood. “To get ourselves in the position where we are controlling the football match, for the momentum to swing away so dramatically is really disappointing for me. The only way you can stop momentum is by keeping the ball off the opposition and we gave it back to them so easily in the last half an hour. We need to improve.”
Man of the match: Jamie Vardy (Leicester City)
Guardian
