LONDON – Jamie Vardy’s hat-trick dealt an early blow to Manchester City’s hopes of wrestling back the Premier League title as they conceded three penalties in a 5-2 defeat to Leicester, while Newcastle’s late spot-kick to snatch a 1-1 draw at Tottenham sparked fresh debate over the handball rule.
City was without first-team regulars due to injury and coronavirus infections, but the deficiencies at the back that undid their title defence last season was again exposed by the pace and finishing prowess of Vardy as a Pep Guardiola team conceded five for the first time in his coaching career.
Leicester stormed to the top of the league but had to come from behind to extend their perfect start to the season as Riyad Mahrez’s stunning strike against his former club opened the scoring after just four minutes.
“The problem was we put extra pressure on ourselves to score the second and third,” said Guardiola. “We need to be more calm, we don’t have the players to attack the box that we need.”
“I am not going to give up; I am going to try to find solutions.”
City is reportedly close to signing Benfica centre-back Ruben Dias and the need for the defensive cover was obvious as Vardy tore apart the experimental pairing of Eric Garcia and Nathan Ake.
“We set up to infuriate them and it has worked a treat,” said Vardy. “We knew if we stuck to our plan we would get some chances.”
It was the more experienced Kyle Walker who was at fault to start Leicester’s revival as he brought down Vardy, who slammed home the resulting penalty.
The former England international then brilliantly flicked home Timothy Castagne’s cross and drew another penalty from Garcia’s naive challenge.
Vardy this time slotted low past Ederson and James Maddison killed off a jaded City with a sumptuous curling effort into the top corner.
Ake pulled a goal back six minutes from time from Mahrez’s corner, but after Vardy had made way, another idiotic City challenge, this time form Benjamin Mendy, allowed Your Tielemans to score Leicester’s third penalty. – AFP, September 28, 2020
