Leicester City 4 Tottenham Hotspur 1: Who came third in a two horse race?
Tottenham Hotspur, it happened again.
The first meeting between these two teams was one of many nadirs in the first half of the season. We went to Spurs and conceded to Harry Kane, as we always do. We conceded to to Heung Min Son, as we always do. We conceded from a corner, as we always do.
We didn’t do any of those things this time.
Apart from the corner part.
Instead, Leicester backed up last weekend’s three points with the best performance of the season, eviscerating a Tottenham team that was begging for the final whistle for the last half an hour. When it finally came, they staggered over to the away end to find row after row of empty seats staring back at them.
Is that the sound of Nampalys?
Many shocking things have happened at the King Power Stadium in the two decades of its existence. There has been triumph and tragedy, Andrea Bocelli and the helicopter crash. There was a brief period when an anthropomorphic Topps Tile wandered around the pitch before games.
Few can come close to what we witnessed on Saturday afternoon, when Nampalys Mendy, with six years, no goals, and virtually no shots as a Leicester player behind him, surged into the right corner of the penalty area and smashed a bouncing ball into the roof of the Spurs net.
On the rare occasions that Wilfred Ndidi scores, it’s tinged with frustration that he had the chutzpah to take yet another shot on, despite having scattered the previous thousand all over the city. Papy carries no such baggage and so we could enjoy his bolt from the blue while safe in the knowledge that he’s never going to try it again.
Mendy only started because Youri Tielemans was absent with a Classic Leicester Injury that nobody knew about until the teams were announced. But it probably did us a favour with the balance of the team. Tielemans, for all his talents, makes forward forays like a man who thinks he’s a yard quicker than he is and has the habit of leaving acres of space behind him in transition. Mendy has no such delusions.
Goal aside, he played the defensive midfield role superbly. He covered in behind the full backs on the rare occasion Spurs got behind them, and was always available for a pass. Leicester’s ball retention - barring the usual handful of calamities - was good, and it meant Spurs never really had a sustained attacking spell.
The Scandinavian Robert Huth
Leicester’s defending isn’t perfect, but it’s far better than it was a few weeks ago. The biggest part of the transformation is the left back.
It’s hard to define intangibles like leadership, organisation, and an edge, but Victor Kristiansen has all three. His impact goes far beyond the defensive ability that saw him shut Dejan Kulusevski out of the game. He demands the ball, he’s aggressive in defending and in getting forward, and he’s happy to bawl out his own teammates if they make a mistake - as he did to Mendy when he chose a backwards pass over giving it to the Dane in space.
Leicester have had none of that this season. No one to hold them to a higher standard or to give the opposition a few digs in the ribs. Since Kristiansen’s debut at Walsall that authority and confidence has begun seeping throughout the team.
The most obvious impact, counter-intuitively, is that we look far better going forward. Rodgers’ defensive system has always relied on individuals winning their battles rather than a strong collective, and it’s abundantly clear that he hasn’t trusted the personnel enough to play how he wanted up to now.
With Kristiansen and Harry Souttar installed in the defensive line, it’s all changed. The high press is back, forcing turnovers and creating chances, safe in the knowledge we aren’t going to concede every time they try it. Defenders are slamming into tackles. Wout Faes’ immortal, thumping challenge on Kane on the half way line to set up the second goal will go down in Leicester folklore.
While we still do a series of insane things to give the other team chances - lose the ball inside the box for the weekly near-concession inside 90 seconds, interrupt calm spells of possession to hand the ball to a striker 2v2 in our own half, dribble past our own goalkeeper to shoot narrowly wide - the biggest change now from a fortnight ago is that our individuals can compete with, and beat, their opponent.
The flying Foxes
Nowhere is that more evident than up front. There are times as a football fan when you accept the hard yards, knowing that the right move is to sacrifice style and grind out a few results. But there comes a point where enough is enough and you need a reminder as to why you put yourself through this every week of the year.
There were lots of them on Saturday. Kelechi Iheanacho, the greatest striker the Premier League hardly saw, was sensational again. In the dying embers of the first half, he picked up a Souttar clearance, sauntered up to Eric Dier and scored the most dismissive goal of the season. Harvey Barnes tore Tottenham’s right side to shreds, scored once, had one disallowed, missed a one-on-one and could have been in at least twice more had Tete played the right pass.
And then there’s James Maddison, who has perhaps become so good that we underrate him even when he scores every week. In the two games since he’s been restored to his #10 role, we’ve scored 8 (eight) goals. It’s perhaps no surprise that someone who loves the limelight fully embraced being named captain for the first time. He sauntered around, running the show, and Spurs hardly got near him.
One player they did get near was Tete, whose home debut was much less dramatic than his away day introduction. Yet it’s not hard to draw a line from his appearance to the sudden, rarefied air of space for the winger on the opposite side.
Tete and Barnes threatening inside, Kristiansen and Timothy Castagne on the overlap. Leicester, finally, have balance, and if they keep this up we’re going to have to give the front four a name.
Looking ahead
The beauty of the fixture list is in the eye of the beholder. Once upon a time, in the distant past of…eight or nine days ago, it looked like we might not win again until March.
Now, having slain an in-form Villa and dodged the spectre of Kane, anything is possible. Two games into Project Refresh and the atmosphere around the place has changed. Kristiansen and Faes are celebrating clearances, Tete is oleing everybody, Jamie Vardy is coming on to humiliate defenders at 4-1 up and then laughing in their faces.
Next up is Manchester United, sans Casemiro. Then it’s Arsenal, whose title challenge is teetering towards the flames. After that, we host Blackburn for a place in the quarter final of the FA Cup. We’ve bought ourselves the luxury of a couple of free hits and, perhaps, the chance to dream of another 2021?
