Leicester City 2-1 Manchester City – Match Recap

Champions Manchester City tasted defeat for the second successive game as they were beaten 2-1 at Leicester City. Goals from Marc Albrighton and Ricardo Pereira secured the points for the Foxes after Bernardo Silva had given City the lead in the 14^th minute. The result sees the blues drop to third in the race for the Premier League title, and lose more ground on leaders Liverpool, who extended their lead at the top to six points over City.

City were aiming to keep the pace with Liverpool and also avoid back to back defeats after their shock 3-2 home defeat to Crystal Palace on Saturday. Leicester were looking to keep the momentum after beating Chelsea at Stamford Bridge at the weekend, a result that could well have saved manager Claude Puel’s job for another week.

But it was the blues who looked like putting their weekend defeat behind them when Sergio Aguero’s ball found Silva and the midfielder to calmly slot past Kasper Schmeichal after just fourteen minutes. An early goal has often signified the start of the floodgates opening, but on this occasion, as on Saturday, the blues failed to hold onto or improve their lead. Just five minutes later, Albrighton escaped the attention of Fabian Delph to head in Jamie Vardy’s cross to level the scores and blues fans were fearing a repeat of the Palace match.

City, usually so lethal in front of goal, seemed to lose the cutting edge and had several chances to retake the lead but failed to do so, with Aguero and Sane both missing chances to put the blues in front. Aymeric Laporte was also on hand to deny a goal bound Jamie Vardy effort when his outstretched leg deflected the shot from the former England striker.

With the match so delicately poised and City wasting a whole host of chances, it was no surprise when Leicester took the lead in the 81^st minute. Pereira’s rocket flew past Ederson and nestled in the back of the City net to put Leicester in front and send City staring down the barrel at a second consecutive defeat and their third loss in four matches.

And just to compound City’s days, Delph was sent off in the closing minutes of normal time when his sliding challenge caught Ricardo on the knee, an act that was seen as deliberate by the referee and promptly gave the City man his marching orders.

Defeat for City leaves them in third place in the league, seven points behind Liverpool and one point behind second placed Spurs. But with only half the season gone so far, it’s a little early to be pressing the panic button, but it leaves manager Pep Guardiola with a lot to think about with the big clash against the Merseysiders on the horizon.