Southampton 1 – 4 Leicester City
Leicester finally get up and running this season in an attacking sense as they defeated Southampton in a statement win.
The Foxes struck early, with Jamie Vardy fired home barely after Bobby Madley marked kick-off with the blow of his whistle as they capitalised on an early Southampton mistake with a high press – something that would be a feature of their play in the first half.
In a half that was shaped by a flurry of individual errors, another mistake from the Saints gifted the ball to Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall high up the pitch, who found Kasey McAteer with a defence-cutting pass to slot past Gavin Bazunu, doubling the lead.
The start echoed a certain 9-0 display on the same ground but hopes of the same scoreline were dashed as Sam Edozie dinked the ball over the onrushing Mads Hermansen following a third error of the game, this time from Callum Doyle who failed to clear his lines.
With the scoreline at 2-1, the next goal became crucial and Wilfred Ndidi’s composed strike on the brink of half time could not have come at a better time as Leicester restored the two-goal lead going into the break.
Southampton would come out looking to half the deficit once more, bringing on the dangerous Kamaldeen Sulemana, but a misplaced pass from the Saints winger put his own side in danger as Stephy Mavididi broke forward and beat Bazunu to put the game to bed, with chants of “straight back up” bellowing out against the backdrop of an emptying St Mary’s – It would later get worse for Sulemana after his late challenge on James Justin was deemed worthy of a red card by the referee.
Leicester’s fourth goal would mark a successful shift to a more counter attacking set up in the second half, as Mavididi broke forward moments before this, only to miss the target after electing not to square it for a Vardy tap-in.
This chance aside, it was very promising to see the Foxes not only create so many clear-cut chances, but to start taking them more clinically – Vardy being a prime example of this as he made no mistake in front of goal with only seconds on the clock.
The defensive resilience was also promising to see in the second half, restricting Southampton to long shots as the back line and midfield stood resolute, displaying organisation that was somewhat lacking throughout the majority of last season as chances and goals for the opposition were seemingly presented to them.
The game marked the beginning of a tricky run of fixtures, with the likes of free-scoring Norwich, Nigel Pearson’s Bristol City and Liverpool at Anfield coming up next, but the squad will be going into them full of confidence after their best display of the season against a team that will surely be challenging for the automatic places.
Leicester City: Hermansen, Justin, Vestergaard, Doyle, Pereira, Ndidi (Casadei 58′), Winks (Choudhury 83′), Dewsbury-Hall (Akgun 83′), McAteer (Fatawu 70′), Vardy (Iheanacho 83′), Mavididi
Southampton: Bazunu, Walker-Peters, Charles, Harwood-Bellis, Manning, Edozie (Sulemana 45′), Smallbone, Downes (Alcaraz 50′), Frazer, (S Armstrong 68′), Adams (Aribo 78′), A Armstrong