Leicester City have jumped up to 16th on the table, a place above Leeds United, after drawing at the King Power Stadium with fellow relegation strugglers Everton on Monday evening.
The Foxes went into the game without Kelechi Iheanacho and were expected to struggle in attack without the Nigerian linking them together. They indeed struggled, but were able to come back from conceding an early penalty to the Toffees in the 15th minute.
Dominic Calvert-Lewin would score the resulting spotkick which kicked the 2015/16 Premier League title winners into a higher gear. The Foxes would score two goals in eleven minutes to go into the halftime break with the advantage, piling pressure on their visitors and the other teams battling relegation.
Çağlar Söyüncü’s and Jamie Vardy’s efforts would count for nought as Alex Iwobi found the back of the net with his second league goal of the season to draw Everton level. The match would end 2 – 2 and Leicester City, who started the evening in 18th place, jumped ahead of Leeds United into 16th place thanks to their better goal difference.
The game was a very entertaining one. Both sides missed clear chances to go ahead. James Maddison missed a penalty and Calvert-Lewin missed a chance that would have buried the game for the Toffees.
Maddison’s penalty miss was not much of a surprise to the Foxes fans but there was backlash towards manager Dean Smith’s decision to allow the England international take the spotkick with Jamie Vardy on the pitch.
The 35-year-old striker is the second best penalty taker at the club behind the injured Kelechi Iheanacho. The absence of the Nigerian was a clear indication that Vardy would have stepped up to assume penalty duties in the coming games but Smith made his decision to let a man who had not taken a penalty for Leicester since 2018 to do so in a crucial game.
Cameras would capture Everton goalkeeper Jordan Pickford’s water bottle showing where Leicester’s key men usually strike their spot kicks. When Maddison stepped up to the spot, Pickford stood tall to beat his tame shot away and break the hearts of Leicester fans, who could have seen their team move into 16th place on three points to give them a better chance of staying up instead of on goal difference.
Smith chose to look ahead to the next fixtures when quizzed about his decision to get Maddison on the penalty. “We can’t change what has happened,” said Smith. “There is still 12 points to play for – I never thought this game would take us clear of relegation. We’ll keep fighting and I’m sure we will play better.”
Leicester will now turn their attention to Fulham on Monday as they hope to secure valuable points to keep their head above water.
