Leicester City 4-2 Burnley
Leicester City made it two wins from two with a resounding win over Burnley tonight in an entertaining clash at the King Power Stadium.
As the last game of an action-packed Sunday, Premier League: Leicester City vs Burnley lived up our expectations with attacking intent from both teams from the off.
Without either of their established centre back pairing of Ben Mee and James Tarkowski fit, Burnley gave a Premier League debut to Jimmy Dunne to play alongside fellow Irishman Kevin Long, and eventually, the Foxes took advantage.
The Leicester City vs Burnley highlights tell the story as we expected; plenty of quality, particularly from Leicester and two committed sides, but the Foxes’ class won the day.
Coaches Brendan Rodgers and Sean Dyche are old mates and you’d expect the Leicester boss to buy his pal a drink after this one.
Highlights of the game
In an open start to the game, Burnley’s Chris Wood sprung the offside trap to get a run in on goal but Wilfred Ndidi got his tackle in before the striker could get his shot away. But it wasn’t long before the Clarets’ top scorer of the 2019/20 season opened his account. Winger Dwight McNeil tricked his way down the left wing before pulling the ball back to wing-back Charlie Taylor, and his quality cross was met at the far post by Wood who shrugged off a challenge from James Justin before firing the ball into the opposite corner.
2020 Golden Boot winner Jamie Vardy opened his account in the current campaign with a brace of penalties against West Brom last week and it was his electric pace which drew the Foxes level on 20 minutes. He latched on to a through ball and when he was pushed wide Vardy pulled the ball back to Timothy Castagne. He rolled the ball sideways to Harvey Barnes to slide the ball into the bottom left corner of the net.
Barnes tried his luck again when he found space on the left flank but this time his effort was high and wide. And then Robbie Brady tested Kasper Schmeichel after a clever Burnley move with a first time effort. As the game flowed from end to end Barnes forced an even better save from Nick Pope who got down well to keep the scores level. As Leicester upped the pressure and fired a dangerous ball in Phil Bardsley put in a last-ditch clearance to deny Barnes who was sliding in at the far post.
The Foxes took the lead early in the second half thanks to a brilliant pass from Youri Tielemans which split the Burnley defence, but there was a huge slice of bad luck for Erik Pieters when Castagne’s low cross cannoned in off his foot, sending his own keeper the wrong way.
Wood had a great chance to draw the Clarets level after another smart move but he shot straight at Schmeichel. But in the blink of an eye, the Foxes had doubled their lead with a superb move of their own. Ayoze Perez tormented the Burnley defence on the right flank before squaring the ball for Justin to poke the ball home.
Then young Jimmy Dunne, who’d had a good debut against a dangerous Leicester attack dragged the Clarets back into the game when he met a McNeil cross and headed it down into the ground and past Schmeichel to make it 3-2.
But these Foxes are dangerous and when Barnes squared the ball to Dennis Praet he fired a thunderbolt beyond Pope into the roof of the net.
There was still time for Wood to hit the post after great work from Matej Vydra but this was Leicester’s night.
Key statistics
The pre-match Leicester City vs Burnley betting odds here at SBOTOP gave a price of Leicester to win at 1.62 and they were good value, but Burnley put up a brave fight, winning the shot count by 16 to 15, while the Foxes had six to five on target.
This was Rodgers’ 100th Premier League win as a manager.
What’s next?
The Clarets came through a Carabao Cup second round tie against Sheffield United last Thursday and have a third-round date with Championship side Millwall this week; and then they have three winnable games against Southampton, Newcastle United and West Brom in the Premier League.
The Foxes have two big games coming up, firstly a Carabao Cup tie against Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal. The Gunners have won their opening two games of the league season and have picked up two trophies over the last couple of months, the FA Cup and the Community Shield.
Then they play away to Manchester City who open their campaign away to Wolves tomorrow night.
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