Leicester City 4 v 0 Swansea City
Report by Stuart Dawkins
The way that Spurs had demolished Manchester United and Stoke to win their previous two games and, with all respect to Swansea, the way that City’s visitors had been playing recently made this feel like a “must win” game for Leicester – even without the presence of Vardy.
It is hard to get the balance right currently between optimism (“five points ahead with four to play”) and natural Leicester pessimism (“they haven’t won it yet”). Claudio has finally admitted the league title is a target – but that is entirely consistent with his approach all season of setting the next achievable target, and no further.
The approaches to the ground were surrounded by camera crews. The banner at the Kop end read “History makes us who we are”, Birch rang a bell (“Dilly Ding, Dilly Dong”) before the players came out onto the pitch. The noise made by the City fans when the teams did come out was the loudest I have ever heard at the King Power stadium. Nothing was quite normal about the pre-match build-up.
Ranieri made two changes – predictably Ulloa replaced the banned Vardy, partnering Okazaki up front; Schlupp also replaced Albrighton reflecting his positive contribution and speed towards the end of last week’s match against West Ham.
Leicester looked nervy for the first 10 minutes. Morgan gave the ball away after less than 40 seconds which almost led to a Swansea chance. Whilst Swansea threatened nothing too dangerous, they looked the more settled side.
Then the normally dependable Ashley Williams played a lazy pass from defence, which hit Mahrez, leaving the Leicester star with only the keeper to beat. He took his time, picked his spot and scored easily: 1-0 after 10 minutes.
The goal settled City, and also seemed to boost Mahrez who was today back to his mesmerising best after a few quieter performances in recent weeks. City were patiently passing the ball along the back line and playing fewer longer balls forwards than when Vardy is in the side, but Swansea offered little in response and the 1-0 lead began to look comfortable. The feeling of comfort was cemented in the 30th minute, when a Drinkwater free-kick from the left wing was headed home by Ulloa.
The score remained 2-0 at half time and it already felt as though the game was pretty much over as a contest.
The half time entertainment included the Leicester City Women’s football team, who paraded the trophy they had won for topping their league with 20 wins from 20 matches, to great applause from the City fans hoping for more silverware for the men’s team.
Swansea made two attacking changes at half time, Paloschi and Montero replacing Fer and Routledge. I was surprised that Routledge was removed, as Swansea’s most likely attacking route in the first half was from quick Fabianski kicks from hand for the speedy forward to chase.
The first few minutes of the second half were end-to-end, with both sides pushing for the next goal. In the end, it was Leicester’s quality and pace that got the reward: Schmeichel released Schlupp, whose speed took him past his defender on the half-way line and left him facing just the keeper. He tried to square the ball, rather than shooting, the recovering defender got a foot to it and the chance looked to be over, but Schlupp managed to squirt the ball along the goal line for Ulloa to slide in at the far post for his second goal of the game: 3-0 and game over.
The remainder of the game was more or less an exhibition match. Swansea were poor. Leicester had chance after chance and had Fabianski not been in form, it could have been a far higher score line. Schlupp, in particular, seemed to be on a ‘run-on-sight’ policy – bursting past defenders many times with only his finishing letting him down.
Ranieri chose to rest Okazaki in the 73rd minute. He, too, had run and run in his usual way. Gray took a position more-or-less alongside Ulloa, leaving the wingers unchanged. Swansea made their final substitution and, shortly after, had perhaps their best chance – a free header from a corner which went over the bar.
The rest was completely controlled by Leicester. Ulloa was replaced by Andy King, with City adopting a 4-5-1 formation with Gray as striker. Ulloa had done everything this game to justify Ranieri’s confidence in him. He challenged, he held the ball up, he linked well with his team-mates and, importantly, he scored two goals.
King nearly scored with almost his first possession, he was released for a one-on-one run at the keeper, but Fabianski made another decent save to deny the chance.
Ranieri made his final change with eight minutes to go, replacing Schlupp with Albrighton, and within a couple of minutes the substitute had scored. This time it was Gray who easily outsprinted the labouring Swansea defence, his cross was headed back across the goal by King, Gray’s resulting shot was blocked by the Swansea keeper, and Albrighton finished well from the rebound to make the score 4-0.
The City fans were now singing “Four-nil to the one-man team”, followed by “Barcelona! We’re coming for you”. Yet, despite the overwhelming victory, the manager’s attention to discipline was clear – visibly annoyed by Fuchs wasting a pass in the 89th minute when his team led 4-0.
The final whistle brought the expected jubilation from the home crowd and players – the eight point lead restored, at least temporarily.
This match had the potential to be a real test of Leicester’s spirit and resilience. They passed the test with ease, with a confident, fluent performance. It was particularly noticeable that, even without Vardy, City had many players quick enough to outpace a sluggish Swansea defence: Schlupp, Gray, Mahrez – even Ulloa and King – each had opportunities simply through their speed.
Spurs are still playing well enough that they could win all of their remaining games, however anyone thinking that THIS would be the game when City wobbled, could not have been more wrong.
Leicester: Schmeichel, Simpson, Morgan, Huth, Fuchs, Mahrez, Kanté, Drinkwater, Schlupp, Ulloa, Okazaki
Subs: King, Albrighton, Amartey, Gray, Wasilewski, Chilwell, Schwarzer
Swansea: Fabianski, Rangel, Fernandez, Williams, Taylor, Britton, Ayew, Cork, Fer, Routledge, Sigurdsson
Subs: Amat, Ki Sung-yueng, Paloschi, Nordfeldt, Montero, Naughton, Barrow
Attendance: 31.962
The views expressed in this report are the opinions of the Trust member nominated to file the report only and do not represent the views of the Foxes Trust organisation