Report by Kate Thompson
Leicester 2 Chelsea 4 AET
It was inevitable that there would be wholesale changes for what is now called the EFL Cup but there was a respectable crowd for it. Both teams made a number of changes from their previous games, in City’s case seven new faces came in. The one player I had hoped to see was Kapustka but although he was on the bench I was to be disappointed. A front two of Musa and Okazaki should have been strong and the other replacements had all played in the first team before. Despite this, City were struggling for the first 15 minutes and Chelsea had a goal disallowed for offside – a very tight decision as the television cameras showed. Against the run of play the hard-working Japanese, who never seems to give up, got his reward for chasing down a ball and squeezing it over the line, in the 17th minute. All the Leicester fans looked to the referee before celebrating the goal – apart perhaps for those immediately behind the goal. Another 17 minutes later and Okazaki repeated his feat to score another poacher’s goal which again marginally crossed the line. Whether the players thought that they had done enough is debatable but they lost concentration; the usually dependable Morgan lost Cahill and his header was scrambled over by Luiz in the 45th minute. The received wisdom is that just before half-time is a good time to score – is there ever a bad one? – and so it proved for Chelsea. Their equaliser was a screamer from Azpilicueta in the 49th minute; this must have been doubly sweet for the player who was turned inside out by Mahrez in the league game here last season!
The turning point of the game was the sending off of Wasilewski just before the end of normal time, for an elbow in the face of Costa, who we all know will milk every touch for all it’s worth. It was a rash thing to do and meant that City were on the back foot for all of the added 30 minutes. Chelsea scored two quick goals, in the 92nd and 94th minute, both by Fabregas, and the game was effectively over, certainly as a spectacle. Despite City bringing on a couple of the ‘big guns’ – Ulloa for Okazaki and Vardy for Musa – there was no way back. Vardy raised the expectation levels when he came on in the 76th minute by immediately pressurising the keeper into giving away a corner, but even he ended the game as a spectator. The third substitute was Amartey for Gray at the end of normal time.
I hope Ranieri learnt something from this game but my view is that the fringe players did nothing to improve their chances of becoming first-choice. Although all worked hard, too many looked very ordinary. Schlupp seemed half asleep much of the time and Musa was a shadow of the player who scored such a sublime goal against Barcelona. Okazaki worked hard and got his two goals, but he will be back on the bench on Saturday. Andy King was his usual hard-working industrious self but is far from filling the Kante sized hole in midfield. I applaud Claudio for giving them a chance but unfortunately few of them – if any – took it in my opinion. Had it been the FA Cup – which it is still my dream to win – I might have been less pragmatic!
CITY: Zieler, Simpson, Wasilewski, Morgan (c), Chilwell, Drinkwater, King, Gray, Schlupp, Musa, Okazaki
SUBS: Hamer, Benalouane, Amartey, Mahrez, Kapustka, Vardy, Ulloa
CHELSEA: Begovic, Alonso, Fabregas, Pedro, Loftus-Cheek, Moses, Matic, Batshuayi, Cahill (c), Azpilicueta, Luiz
SUBS: Kante, Hazard, Courtois, Costa, Willian, Chalobah, Aina
ATTENDANCE: 29,899
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