Leicester City back on top as Riyad Mahrez hat-trick downs Swansea City
Swansea 0 - 3 LeicesterAway team scorers
Riyad Mahrez 5
Riyad Mahrez 22
Riyad Mahrez 67
Riyad Mahrez scores the first goal for Leicester against Swansea at the Liberty Stadium.
They are Leicester City, they are top of the league. For once the story was not about Jamie Vardy, unable to equal Jimmy Dunne’s top-flight record of scoring in a dozen consecutive games, but about his impressive deputy Riyad Mahrez. The winger reached double figures for the season with a clinical hat-trick to send Claudio Ranieri’s team back to the top of the tree, strengthening their case to be this year’s Christmas No 1.
No longer can chants of “we’re going on a European tour” be considered tongue-in-cheek. Leicester were rampant here, delivering a display of such dazzling counterattacking play that the hosts were lucky to be still in with an outside chance at half-time.
Vardy has been the leading light for most of this season, but it must not be long before Mahrez is courted by one of the traditional big clubs. The two have 24 goals combined, four more than Manchester United, and without them Leicester would be closer to the foot than the top.
Before kick-off, only Sunderland and West Bromwich Albion had enjoyed less possession than Leicester’s 44.4% per game. They also arrived with the worst pass completion rate in the league, a shadow over 71%. But why worry about ball retention when you have such blistering pace and clinical finishing?
Swansea improved in the second half, Ki Sung-yueng hitting the bar a minute after the restart and Gylfi Sigurdsson striking a post, but the damage had been done. Defensively, the home team endured a horror show, but considering Leicester’s gameplan is based on pace it was little surprise to see a high line consisting of Kyle Bartley and Ashley Williams – fine defenders but not exactly fleet of foot – suffer countlessly.
It took only five minutes for Mahrez to score his first, but it could easily have been avoided. Bartley conceded a cheap corner, slicing the ball away in a panic. Marc Albrighton delivered from the left. It evaded a cluster of players at the front post but Mahrez got in front of Bafétimbi Gomis to bundle in from close range. It was not the prettiest but the die was cast.
Vardy should have equalled Dunne’s record nine minutes in, when he dispossessed Williams in the centre circle and sped clear. Lukasz Fabianski was alert, however, and emerged from the goal-line, spread his arms, and did well to close down the angle before saving.
There was little the goalkeeper could have done to deny Mahrez his second, though it should not have stood because the Algerian was at least a yard offside. Either way, it was another goal from a rapid counterattack. The move started with Christian Fuchs’ long pass to Vardy. The striker controlled nonchalantly and laid the ball off to N’Golo Kanté, who sent a delightful defence-splitting diagonal pass to Mahrez. The assistant referee Mick McDonough’s flag remained by his side, allowing Mahrez to control the ball before side-footing it home.
Mahrez was denied a hat-trick inside 25 minutes by another solid Fabianski stop, having found his way past a suffering Neil Taylor, while Leonardo Ulloa curled inches wide having been played in by Vardy.
Things were so desperate for Swansea that Leicester were playing keep ball.
The ‘olés’ grew louder and louder from the away end. Yet such was the disappointment from the home support that the groans were replaced by moments of stunned silence as a desperate half drew to a close.
Introducing Jefferson Montero for Wayne Routledge at the break did boost Swansea’s attacking output momentarily and, while Ki headed the ball off the bar from a corner, Sigurdsson was left to rue driving a good opportunity over in the 53rd minute.
Any hope was quenched 15 minutes after that, when Mahrez completed his treble. Kanté galloped forward and fed Vardy in the D. The striker turned and found Mahrez to his right, who tucked the ball past Fabianski and into the bottom left corner, first time.
Vardy drilled over after getting behind Bartley and also hit the side-netting, resulting in the loudest cheer of the day from the Swansea fans after he kicked an advertising board out of frustration. He responded in kind by showing them three fingers with one hand, making a zero with the other.
Sigurdsson hit the woodwork with a curling attempt and Gomis, who appears bereft of confidence, had a fresh-air kick from eight yards out late on.
Outfought and outclassed, Garry Monk might be running out of time quicker than he thinks.
Guardian
