Leicester City 2 v 0 Stoke City
Report by Stuart Dawkins
So, Craig Shakespeare becomes the first British-born manager to win his first four Premier League games. Whoever would have thought it? The pre-match celebrations were not for the manager, however. The Chairman’s birthday is actually next week, but he will miss the next game so today saw pyrotechnics, a huge picture of Mr Srivaddhanaprabha’s grinning face hoisted in front of the Family Stand, and a belated fly-over by a banner-trailing light aircraft. Then, and arguably more importantly, there was a standing ovation for the return of The Birch – in the stand not on the pitch – present at his first match since his heart attack.
Once the game started, Leicester were simply too good for a pedestrian Stoke side, and without Grant’s performance in goal, City would have won far more comfortably. With Morgan still injured, Benalouane retained his spot, and an illness to Albrighton meant that Gray got a start on the left wing. Otherwise it was business as usual for Leicester. From the start they pressed hard and moved the ball well. They even spent good spells of the game dominating possession, as Stoke’s midfield largely chased shadows.
Gray revelled in the slowness of the visiting defenders, taking on three or four of them at a time on a regular basis – one of which led to a yellow card for Shawcross who could not match the winger’s pace and simply tripped him. Okazaki, too, was exceptionally lively – clearly taking a lift from scoring his 50th goal for his country during the international break. He harried and chased as much as usual, but added some skilful link-up play and a couple of decent shots on goal, too.
The majority of the first half consisted of City attacking and Stoke defending. The few chances Stoke created typically coming from fast breaks, but none troubling Schmeichel.
For all City deserved to be ahead, the nature of the first goal surprised everyone: tenacious tackling by City on the right wing in the 26th minute led to the ball being fed into Ndidi 25 yards from goal. He took the ball in his stride and struck an unstoppable shot into the top corner, giving Grant no chance.
City continued to press for the remainder of the half. Okazaki fired just over with a trade-marked overhead kick. Mahrez finally sprang to life with a shot from 20-yards which was well saved. Walters became the second player to be yellow carded for bringing down an accelerating Gray. It was all pretty comfortable for the home team.
City started the second half in similar vein, and within a couple of minutes had doubled their lead. Mahrez and Gray linked up well on the right, the ball was passed to Simpson who had taken up a lovely position just outside the penalty box; his cross was perfect for Vardy to volley home powerfully from 10 yards. It was no more than City deserved.
Mark Hughes took off a largely anonymous Walters, replacing him with Crouch. Stoke became a bit more purposeful and direct, and began to give City a bit of a challenge – but, in truth, the visitors still looked like a team struggling for form and for goals. They did not capitalise on various half chances, and as the match progressed their strikers were regularly and unnecessarily caught offside.
The match was now being played in driving rain under a thunder storm (which – presumably – was not part of the pyrotechnics arranged by the owners but ran it close). Hughes made his final two changes: taking off Berahino – who had been largely poor – and Whelan and replacing them with Diouf and Adams. Shakespeare countered by bringing on Amartey for Okazaki and City, as so often these days, played out the last 15 minutes in a 4-1-4-1 formation. This gave Stoke far more possession in the attacking half but, Arnautovic aside, they made very little of this opportunity.
Vardy had an excellent short range effort saved, Mahrez shot wide when he should have passed to Vardy for a tap in, Mahrez forced another good save from Grant: with a bit of luck and a different opposing goalkeeper, they could easily have won by four or five goals.
Slimani came on for Vardy, then Chilwell for Gray as the home team played out the remainder of the match. In the four minutes of added time, Stoke did come close to scoring: Crouch missed a good headed chance and Schmeichel was called on to make a good close-range save, but City held out for a rare clean sheet and a now less-rare victory.
Leicester played like Leicester and, yet again, proved that when they play in this way few teams can handle them. It was a good team performance, but the star man was Ndidi. It would be too easy to say that he was Kanté-like throughout the match – but I am going to say it anyway. He dominated the midfield and he scored an outstanding goal. He plays with a lot of composure for someone so young, and if he carries on improving as he has done in recent weeks, then City have found another very good midfielder.
Benalouane is worth a mention, too. City look at least as steady with him as they do with Morgan – indeed I think Benalouane’s extra pace makes them possibly even stronger. Gray, too, shone – in the first half in particular, even adding some decent defensive work to his blisteringly fast attacking play.
Well done Craig Shakespeare. Five straight victories, four of them in the league, and a team playing in a positive, confident, attractive way. What more could any fan want – and what drama!
Leicester: Schmeichel, Simpson, Benalouane, Huth, Fuchs, Mahrez, Drinkwater, Ndidi, Gray, Okazaki, Vardy. Subs: Chilwell, Musa, King, Amartey, Slimani, Zieler, Ulloa
Stoke: Grant, Johnson, Shawcross, Martins Indi, Pieters, Arnautovic, Allen, Whelan, Sobhi, Walters, Berahino. Subs: Muniesa, Afellay, Adam, Diouf, Imbula, Given, Crouch
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