Record Win in the Prem! Report By Simon Mack

Aston Villa 1 Leicester City 4

8^th December 2019 2:00pm

Villa Park

Attendance: 41,908

Aston Villa manager Dean Smith likened this match to a game of ‘basketball’ as the foxes broke a 50+ year old club record to win for the 8^th time on the bounce in the top flight of English football.

Foxes boss Brendan Rodgers rotated the pack in this midlands tie bringing Ben Chilwell back in at left back from a minor hip injury along with Dennis Praet for Harvey Barnes and Kelechi Iheanacho for Ayonze Perez. Iheanacho had hugely impressed in his substitute cameo last Sunday setting up the equaliser then scoring the winning goal and his work at villa park was to be equally impressive.

The game commenced with a positive Aston Villa outfit going toe to toe with their visitors and as the game went from end to end it looked as if either side might break the deadlock. James Maddison was set up with some neat work down the right by Iheanacho but was denied by villa keeper Tom Heaton. The rebound fell to Iheanacho again who loped the ball to Jamie Vardy but again Heaton was on hand to snuff out the attack. Minutes later Dutch wide man Anwar El Ghazi rattled the city bar with a 6 yard effort from a low driven cross. It almost looked easier to score than miss for the former Ajax winger but the match remained goalless despite the momentum swaying from end to end.

For the neutral this must have been an early Christmas treat to view as Villa continued to fight tooth and nail with their midlands rivals and their forward endeavour was punished on the 20’ mark when a superb central through ball along the floor from Iheanacho found an onrushing Vardy goal bound once again. He got the better of the keeper but it took 2 bites of the cherry to despatch the ball firmly into the back of the villa net; 1-0 city and that man Vardy had not only scored in 8 consecutive matches but in addition took great delight in having the last say on the home crowd and their cat calls toward him.

Aston Villa did not relent in their attempt to play the foxes at their own game but they were to be punished for their open play again. Chilwell and Youri Tielemans played a neat exchange advanced on the left and the resulting slide rule pass from Tielemans played in James Maddison to the left of the host’s box. Maddison’s low swift near post cross was met by an in rushing Iheanacho and he smashed city’s 2^nd of the game fiercely into the back of the net. Once again Inheanacho was looking every bit the player reborn and is fast becoming yet another player with a huge new lease of life under Brendan Rodgers expert guidance.

Despite the ebb and flow of the game leading to the home side being punished twice they refused to relent from their tactics and deep into injury time villa skipper Jack Gealish gave the home side a lifeline when his low hard shot through the crowd after some scruffy post corner head tennis found the inside of the far post and flew in past an unsighted Kasper Schmeichel.

With the game finely poised both sides returned for the 2^nd period of this one with the same positive endeavour as villas persistent forays forward afforded Leicester the space to counter attack to devastating effect. Just 4 minutes on the clock a long looping corner found Jonny Evans unmarked to the back of the box and his superb header rocketed into the far corner leaving no hope for the outstretched Heaton in the host’s goal.

The excellent Iheancho was replaced by Harvey Barnes in midfield and the game continued to flow in the same vein despite villa’s forward enthusiasm being met with punishment now on 3 occasions. Throughout the afternoon Belgian international Dennis Praet had proven his manager’s nod for the talented midfielder to be a worthy one, and his cultured dink of a pass over the villa defence on 75’ fell beautifully into the path of the ever hungry and ever deadly Jamie Vardy. The resultant venomous shot was to provide city’s 4^th on the day, secure all 3 points without doubt and ensure the foxes winning streak was extended to a record breaking 8 games in a row.

Marc Albrighton replaced Dennis Praet and James Justin had a 10 minute run out late on to replace Chilwell in defence, and as the embers of the game ensued Harvey Barnes might have had a couple more to make this a rout but it wasn’t to be. As the final whistle blew city had succeeded in cementing their 2^nd place status with a 6 point gap to Manchester City below and maintained their 8 point deficit to league leaders Liverpool just 1 spot above.

It felt as if the hosts tactics on the day were honest and positive in nature but by golly had they been punished for the space and time afforded to an outstanding and deadly visitor in the shape of Leicester City. Genuine in intent but naïve to the reality of the foxes capability the game bore truth to so much of the Liverpool / Man City talk of late in the media: Leicester City are the only challengers currently to Liverpool’s blistering pace setting standards and with the Merseyside outfit heading to King Power Stadium on Boxing Day and a fixture mountain to manoeuvre during December who would disregard Leicester’s chances of going into the new year having reduced the current gap to 1^st spot given their current run of outstanding form?

MOTM: Jamie Vardy. 2 goals. 8 game scoring streak. The league’s top goal scorer by some distance and the ruthless and motivated talisman of this side that just keeps turning up and producing in a manner that belies his years. Outstanding and vital to all that is good about this exceptional Leicester City side and reborn under the tutorage of Brendan Rodgers.