José Mourinho is acutely aware that Serge Aurier can be guilty of a rush of blood. Remember what the Tottenham manager told him in the club’s Amazon documentary? “I am afraid of you as a marker,” the manager said in front of the rest of the squad. “Because you are capable of doing a shit penalty with VAR.” The full-back’s death stare was a picture.
Aurier has been excellent for much of this season but his old failing returned to destructive effect here, tilting a tense game in favour of Leicester. He watched Wesley Fofana chase a ball towards the corner of the Spurs area on 45 minutes but the Leicester centre-half was going away from goal and the truth was there was nothing on for him. Which made Aurier’s jumping barge into his back all the more reckless.
Enter VAR and the only decision concerned whether the contact had been inside the area. It had. Aurier has conceded four Premier League penalties since his arrival at Spurs from Paris Saint-Germain in August 2017. Only one player has given away more in the same timeframe – Arsenal’s David Luiz with five.
Jamie Vardy lashed the penalty up the middle and, at last, the game had a talking point, something to blow it open. Before then it had been tight and it always seemed as though one moment, good or bad, could prove decisive.
Leicester had been marginally the better team and they played with greater freedom in the second half en route to their sixth away win in seven league games this season, and one of their biggest statements. For the second season in a row, they will occupy one of the top-two positions at Christmas. Brendan Rodgers will not have it, but could his team have a say in the title race?
Vardy was involved in the second goal, his header going in off the unfortunate Toby Alderweireld, and Spurs were left to consider a third game without victory and what happens when they cannot counterattack their opponents.
Rodgers had been mindful of how Spurs sliced through his team in the corresponding fixture last season, scoring three times without reply in the opening 40 minutes on their way to a 3-0 win. He did not want it to happen again and he felt the greatest tribute to his players was the way they did not give up any chances on the break, despite Tottenham plainly wanting to play that way.
Rodgers got the balance of his tactics right and he could salute a number of individuals for fine performances, chief among them Vardy, the wingers Marc Albrighton and Harvey Barnes, and the right-back James Justin, who was able to nullify Son Heung-min. In midfield, Wilfred Ndidi made more recoveries of the ball than any other player in any league game this season. It meant Rodgers, at the eighth time of asking, could savour victory against Mourinho, under whom he worked at Chelsea.
Spurs were poor at the outset and it was a slog for them to create throughout. Harry Kane played in Son on 15 minutes only for him to sidefoot past the far post – it was neither a shot nor a cross – and Kane headed over from a Son corner before the penalty. He actually managed to hang above Youri Tielemans but just could not get his body shape right.
Leicester looked the more cohesive team before the interval, playing more on the front foot but without being able to create anything clear‑cut. Vardy had a shot blocked; James Maddison worked Hugo Lloris with a deflected effort. And so the present of the penalty was even more gratefully received.
Mourinho had started Giovani Lo Celso and Tanguy Ndombele in a league fixture for the first time this season, although the former was shoehorned in on the right flank, with Steven Bergwijn dropped. It did not work. The manager replaced Ndombele at half-time and he lost Lo Celso to a muscle injury on 49 minutes. Mourinho did not include Dele Alli in his squad despite the presence of nine players on the bench.
By the time of Lo Celso’s withdrawal Leicester thought they had scored again and it was certainly a lovely finish by Maddison, who took a high ball from Justin in his stride before fizzing a low shot into the far corner. The first touch was perfect.
In real time it looked as though Spurs might have a case for offside against him, as Aurier had been slow to get out. What VAR actually showed, when the dreaded lines came out, was that Maddison’s arm was fractionally ahead of Alderweireld. It was one of those man-versus-machine moments that provokes despair.
Leicester did not feel sorry for themselves and they got a legitimate second shortly afterwards. Albrighton was the creator, drifting in a ball from the right to the far post that asked Vardy to leap over Moussa Sissoko, which he did. He then directed the ball back across goal and Alderweireld, who was in close attendance, could do nothing to prevent it from going in at the near corner off a thigh.
Son extended Kasper Schmeichel on 71 minutes after Alderweireld had flicked on a corner from the substitute Gareth Bale but Spurs looked flat and they looked beaten. The optimism around the club has been checked.
