Leicester vs Everton match report: Foxes' miserable form continues as Toffees pick up precious away win
Leicester City 0 Everton 2: Ronald Koeman's side picked up their first away win since September at the home of the champions, who remain just three points above the relegation zone
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Your support makes all the difference.Rewind one whole year ago and it was Claudio Ranieri’s Leicester City who topped the Premier League coming out of the festive Boxing Day fixtures.
The side may have suffered only their second defeat of the season that day, losing 1-0 to Liverpool at Anfield, but the club’s two-point lead over rivals Arsenal demonstrated that the Foxes were on to something special.
How times have since changed. Their 2-0 defeat by Everton on Monday - courtesy of goals from Kevin Mirallas and Romelu Lukaku - consigned the Foxes to further misery as they recorded their ninth loss of the season and slipped further down the league.
The side have managed just 17 points from 18 games now and with just one win in their last nine league games, Leicester’s fall from grace has been painful to watch.
"We are very sad, we wanted to give some good news to our fans after a good result in Stoke," Ranieri admitted afterwards.
"The reaction is not good. We wanted to win, to make a point and to make a very good present to our fans for Boxing Day."
Defeat will come as a particularly difficult pill to swallow given this was a game in which Leicester dominated the earlier passages of play but struggled to create any clear-cut chances, with the misfiring Islam Slimani putting in a particularly underwhelming performance.
The Foxes were rarely tested in the first half as they set about asserting their authority.
Following Daniel Amartey’s tame effort five minutes earlier, Demarai Gray came close with his own right-footed effort on the 15 minute mark. After collecting from an Everton corner, Kasper Schmeichel fired a pinpoint precision kick to Gray who, with an exquisite first touch, set up Marc Albrighton inside him.
The winger returned possession, skipping out Gareth Barry’s challenge in the process, to allow Gray to charge into space. Listening to the crowd’s pleas to shoot, the youngster duly obliged and let loose from 25-odd yards out. His effort sailed wide but it was a telling sign of Leicester’s hold on the game.
Moments later, it was Ben Chilwell’s turn to threaten. Another promising youngblood among the Leicester ranks, the defender charged down the flank, losing his opposite man in the process, before squaring the ball from the left-hand side byline.
The 20-year-old was afforded the time and space to create the same movement a minute later but, as with before, the Foxes’ front men were unable to get a foot to the delivery.
It was a particularly mature and asserted performance from the left-back, stepping in for the suspended Christian Fuchs. Holding his ground under pressure, the defender kept Everton’s deliveries from the left to a minimal while his forward game offered Leicester an additional threat on the front foot. Ranieri confessed afterwards that the youngster was the “only good thing” to take away from a match he described as “bad news” for the team.
But it was not until the second half that Leicester’s fortunes took a turn for the worse.
Against the run of play, Mirallas snatched an unexpected goal six minutes after the break to send the Foxes into panic and hand his side momentum.
A long, route-one clearance from Joel Robles bisected the Leicester defence and it was the winger who broke free to claim the loose ball.
Wes Morgan and Marcin Wasilewski recovered to push Mirallas wide but with a fortunate deflection off the latter, the player’s strike found its way past Schmeichel and into the back of the net.
What followed was a desperate fight from the Foxes to salvage a precious point from the game as Everton remained defiant in defence.
On the 65th minute, right-back Danny Simpson whipped the ball to the far left-post to pick out substitute Leonardo Ulloa who, rising above his opposite man, made a sweet enough connection but was denied by Robles’ firm catch.
The introduction of Riyad Mahrez could not hand Leicester a solution to their problems and as the final whistle loomed, the Foxes began to crack. As the home side threw their men forward, Everton found themselves with the opportunity to exploit the space in behind their opponents' back line.
With seven minute to go, Idrissa Gueye had the opportunity to close the game after a square ball from Lukaku set the midfielder up for a simple shot on goal from five yards out. He fluffed his lines to send the ball high of the bar and hand the Foxes hope - but it wasn't to be.
The Foxes were once again caught out at the back following another long clearance from Robles one minute into injury time. This time it was Lukaku who pounced, holding off Morgan’s challenge in the process, before drifting inwards past Wasilewski to fire the ball into the back of the net and confirm victory for the Toffees.
Speaking after the final whistle, manager Ronald Koeman praised his team for their resilience as his side moved up to seventh in the league.
"From the Arsenal game the team is different, it is more aggressive and that is good. That is what we need to win more games," he said.
"It is always important to win. Everybody knows our away performances in the last two or three months were not how they can be. Today we showed a good team performance."
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