Chelsea beats Leicester City 2-1 at Stamford Bridge after losing 3-0 to Leeds United.
What. A. Game! After the first half had everything but a goal, the second had them in spades.
Sterling kicked off the scoring almost as soon as the second half kicked off, and doubled Chelsea’s lead not long after.
From then on, it was all Leicester, with Barnes’ superb strike getting them back into the game before they threw everything they had at Chelsea, but they just couldn’t find an equaliser.
Starting lineup:
CHELSEA (3-5-2): Edouard Mendy;
Reece James, Thiago Silva, Trevoh Chalobah;
Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Mason Mount, Jorginho, Conor Gallagher, Marc Cucurella;
Kai Havertz, Raheem Sterling.
CHELSEA SUBS: Kepa Arrizabalaga, Mateo Kovacic, Christian Pulisic, Armando Broja, Callum Hudson-Odoi, Ben Chilwell, Hakim Ziyech, Cesar Azpilicueta, Ethan Ampadu.
LEICESTER CITY (4-1-4-1): Danny Ward;
Timothy Castagne, Daniel Amartey, Jonny Evans, James Justin;
Boubakary Soumare; Dennis Praet, Youri Tielemans, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall;
Harvey Barnes; Jamie Vardy.
LEICESTER CITY SUBS: Daniel Iversen, Caglar Soyuncu, Marc Albrighton, Kelechi Iheanacho, Ayoze Perez, Patson Daka, Nampalys Mendy, Wilfried Ndidi, Luke Thomas.
Goals:
GOOOOOAAAAAALLLLLLLL!!!!! Chelsea lead!!!! Cucurella finds Sterling on the edge of the box, who takes on Amartey and shoots. It takes a nick off the Foxes defender, sending it looping over Ward and into the back of the net!!!! 1-0 to the hosts, and what a start to the second half!
GOOOOAAALLLL!!!! He’s got two!!! Superb play down the right between Havertz and James, who play a quick one-two to release the right-back. James fires the ball across the face of goal, where Sterling is waiting to tap it home for 2-0!!! A very well-worked goal indeed, and the 10 men of Chelsea are cruising here!
GOOOOAAAALLLL!!!! They’re pulled one back!!!! Barnes and Vardy link up down the left, playing a one-two that allows Barnes to escape Silva and smash a shot beyond Mendy and into the back of the net!!! 2-1, and its game on once again!
So, what’s next?
That close-run victory sees Chelsea bounce back from their 3-0 loss to Leeds, with the Blues now sitting sixth in the table.
Leicester remains winless, despite their best efforts late in the game.
And will drop to the foot of the table if West Ham wins their next game.
Worrying signs for the Foxes but based on their fight and spirit showed to search for an equaliser, they should be just fine.
