Not a classic homecoming ...
Jacob Steinberg has filed his match report, so I’ll leave you with that. Thanks for your company - goodnight.
Post-match interviews
James Maddison “We’re coming away disappointed. We had chances, myself included, and when you play as well as we did in the second half you have to score the chances we create. I need to improve my goal tally if I want to go to the next level, which I know I can. Chances like that don’t come around very often. I’ve gotta put it away.
“The reaction of Wilfred was brilliant. He showed so much character to come back from a mistake like that to control the game and then score the equaliser. He doesn’t get the credit he deserve - he does the part of the game that nobody else wants to do.”
Wilfred Ndidi “It’s something I try not to think about [the mistake] but it still comes up in my head. I didn’t know he was there. It’s a mixed feeling scoring the equaliser. We did very well in the second half and we’ll try to take that to the next game.”
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That was a game of two distinct 45-minute segments. Chelsea were good in the first half and deserved to lead; Leicester were brilliant in the second and deserved at least an equaliser. James Maddison was both the best player on the pitch and the biggest culprit; he missed a sitter that would have given Leicester the lead.
Wilfred Ndidi was the biggest influence on the match. He gifted Mason Mount a goal on his home debut, and then equalised with a sympathic, humane, kindly header.
Full time: Chelsea 1-1 Leicester
Peep peep!
90+4 min Chelsea are hanging on for a point. Kepa has to run 35 yards from his own goal to just beat Albrighton to a loose ball.
90+3 min Maddison, flagged offside, puts the ball in the net anyway. I don’t think VAR can have anything to do with such incidents, though I haven’t a clue anymore.
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90+2 min “I can’t help but feel that Chelsea’s season is going to be less defined by their manager than the quality of players at their disposal,” says Niall Mullen. “Let’s see if they can get an extra year out of the old dogs because I’m not convinced by the whelps.”
They have some good players to come back – Rudiger, Loftus-Cheek and eventually Hudson-Odoi.
90+2 min: Another chance for Vardy! Ricardo drove a low cross into the six-yard box, where Vardy tried a backheel at the near post and made a mess of it. It was a tricky one as it was behind him, and he mistimed the connection.
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90 min Four minutes of added time. Tielemans has a chance to put Vardy through but hangs onto the ball too long. Chelsea break through Kante and then Abraham, who curls miles wide frokm the edge of the area.
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89 min A brilliant move from Leicester! Maddison curls a pass out to Albrighton on the right. He cuts it back sharply to Tielemans, who whips it first-time towards goal from 15 yards, and Kepa stands tall to beat the shot away. It was straight at him, essentially, but beautifully struck. Leicester have been a pleasure to watch in this second half, Maddison in particular. He’s ready for international football, nae question.
86 min Mount plays a one-two with Abraham and hits a fierce shot from 25 yards that goes behind off Soyuncu. The corner, from Willian, is a stinker.
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83 min Mount wafts a free-kick over the bar from 30 yards. Chelsea have lost their way. They might still nick it - Big Six teams do that a lot at home - but the second-half performance has been as deflating as the first was encouraging.
82 min I think Chelsea would take a draw now, as Leicester look the more likely winners. Mind you, so did England against Romania at France 98.
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81 min “This is the third game in a row in which Chelsea have been superb in the first half, slack in the second,” says Julian Menz. “Does Frank need to do some extra work on his half-time pep talks?”
80 min Marc Albrighton replaces the disappointing Ayoze Perez. He’s a fine player but his decision-making has been poor today.
80 min Although he missed that great chance, Maddison has been magnificent in the second half.
79 min Maddison plays a good pass to Tielemans. He plays an even better one to Perez, who has the chance to slip Vardy in behind the defence ... and he makes a Horlicks of it.
77 min: Vardy almost makes it 2-1! Maddison put him through on the left of the area with a lovely disguised pass. Vardy took a touch and then hammered the ball low across goal with his left foot. Kepa plunged to his left and the ball whistled just wide of the far post.
75 min “Your description of Ndidi’s goal,” says Zafar Sobhan. “An emphatic header, perhaps?”
That’s my new favourite typo.
74 min Almost a chance at the other end, with Pedro’s excellent cross just evading the leaping Abraham in the area.
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73 min: What a miss from Maddison! Leicester should be 2-1 up. Fuchs’ sharp low cross was touched off by Perez to Maddison, who ran through a couple of defenders in the area to create a clear opportunity. And then he leathered it over the bar from eight yards.
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72 min Leicester make another substitution, with the debutant Dennis Praet replacing Hamza Choudhury.
71 min A double change for Chelsea: Willian and Kovacic replace Jorginho and Pulisic, who had a quiet home debut.
70 min Ricardo drags a shot well wide from 25 yards. But it’s another reflection of Leicester’s bullishness. They’ve been quite superb in the second half, Maddison in particular. He’s a beautiful player.
Wilfred Ndidi has scored at both ends! Sort of. His desperate mistake led to Chelsea’s goal but now he has equalised with an empathic header from Maddison’s outswinging corner. He got in front of Azpilicueta, eight yards from goal, and powered it into the top corner.
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GOAL! Chelsea 1-1 Leicester (Ndidi 67)
It’s there!
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66 min Fuchs’ deflected cross loops over the backpedalling Kepa and onto the roof of the net. That was close.
64 min Perez’s clever through ball is just too far in front of Vardy.
61 min Maddison’s corner is headed away to Tielemans, who shoots high and wide rom 25 yards. Chelsea then make their first substitution, with Tammy Abraham replacing the excellent Olivier Giroud.
60 min Maddison robs Pedro and tries to stab a through ball to Vardy. Christensen puts it behind for a corner.
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60 min It’s hard to reconcile Leicester’s listless, meek first-half performance with how well they have played since half-time.
58 min Lovely play from Maddison, who twists Christensen inside out on the left side of the area before hammering a left-footed cross-shot that flashes across the six-yard box.
57 min When the corner is half cleared, Choudhury tries to place a curling shot from the left side of the box. It’s too close to Kepa, who makes a comfortable tumbling save.
56 min Pedro is struggling. It looked very innocous, as he kicked the underside of Perez’s boot on the edge of the Leicester area, but he is limping heavily as he leaves the field.
55 min Pedro is down but Leicester play on and win a corner, which doesn’t impress the home fans.
53 min This is much better from Leicester, and Chelsea have gone up a gear in response. Emerson’s cross is flicked towards goal by the head of Giroud, and Schmeichel makes a comfortable save.
50 min A half-chance for Leicester. Maddison runs at the Chelsea defence, just outside the area. Kante gets a tackle in but Maddison picks up the loose ball, dances round the outrushing Kepa and slides the ball back from the byline towards Tielemans near the penalty spot. Mount nips in front of him to make an important clearance.
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48 min Maddison stabs a through pass to Vardy, who is offside. It’s been a bright start from Leicester, though.
47 min Perez tries to dink a pass over the top for Vardy. Christensen stretches to head it towards the edge of the area, where Maddison shapes for the volley and then loses his balance.
46 min Peep peep! Leicester begin the second half.
Half-time reading
Half time: Chelsea 1-0 Leicester
Peep peep! Chelsea lead, deservedly so, through Mason Mount’s early goal. It was all his own work: he robbed Wilfred Ndidi just outside the area and finished adroitly.
45 min One minute of added time.
44 min A microcosm of Leicester’s first half: Ricardo takes a throw-in to Perez, who cushions a short return pass to Ricardo. He miscontrols it and it goes out of play.
42 min Chelsea have become a little passive, apparently content to go to half-time with a 1-0 lead. Leicester have had 71 per cent possession in the last 10 minutes.
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40 min “Pedro has been excellent in this game so far, pressing, defending from the front and quick in the transition,” says Lee Madden. “I do wonder though, what position is he actually playing? It looks like a wide forward position but he’s been everywhere. Thoughts?”
He’s definitely the right-sided wide forward, but anyone who plays in those positions has a fair bit of freedom these days.
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38 min From the resulting free-kick, Maddison curls a wicked ball from the right that just bounces over the stretching Ndidi at the far post.
37 min Jorginho is booked for a late tackle on Tielemans.
35 min Leicester are having an even share of possession now. It’s all in front of Chelsea, though, who look very comfortable defensively at this stage.
30 min Chelsea almost return Ndidi’s favour by giving Leicester a goal. Kepa, who received a pass from Zouma, dithered on the ball and was this close to being robbed by Vardy on the six-yard line. In the end he had to stretch to tackle Vardy and the ball deflected to safety.
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28 min Reports of Chelsea’s demise, it seems, were greatly exaggerated. They look an excellent side, and their pressing has been really impressive.
26 min: Great block by Fuchs! Emerson’s near-post cross was flicked behind him by Giroud, who is a fine game. Kante arrived late to steer a shot towards goal from eight yards, but Fuchs slid in from the side to deflect the ball behind for a corner. Brilliant defending.
25 min We’ve seen little of Maddison and even less of Tielemans and Perez in the first 25 minutes. Leicester have been really disappointing.
23 min “Good afternoon Rob,” says Hubert O’Hearn. “So I see we’re both on a break from the cricket. I hope – I honestly truly hope – Lampard gets at least two full seasons to exhibit what he can do with all that young talent Chelsea’s been loaning out for years.”
I suspect he will, although you never know with Roman Abramovich. He doesn’t appear to be the sentimental kind.
21 min Another chance for Mount, who heads Azpilicueta’s flat cross straight at Schmeichel from 10 yards.
20 min “Sure it was mostly Ndidi’s fault for dawdling & losing ball to Mount, but defender who passed it to Ndidi should share blame,” says Mike MacKenzie. “Passing in front of goal with not one but two forwards near your guy isn’t very smart.”
I know what you mean but I think it was essentially a safe pass – they want to play out from the back and Ndidi had plenty of time to get rid of it.
17 min Ricardo makes a good run forward from right-back, only to overhit his through pass to Vardy. Leicester are settling down, though.
15 min Chelsea have had 60 passes in the opposition half. Leicester have had six.
14 min Leicester are slowly coming into the game, having barely seen the ball in the first 10 minutes.
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10 min There has been an eye-catching intensity to Chelsea’s play, with and especially without the ball. Mount was all over Ndidi for the goal.
8 min That was a fine finish from Mount, because he was under pressure from Ndidi and was starting to fall over as he took the shot. But he still managed to screw it back across Schmeichel.
Mason Mount scores on his home debut after a lamentable error from Wilfred Ndidi. He dithered for an age on the edge of the D and was robbed by Mount, who moved into the area and screwed an excellent low shot past Schmeichel.
GOAL! Chelsea 1-0 Leicester (Mount 7)
It’s there!
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6 min This has been such a purposeful start from Chelsea. Leicester have barely crossed the halfway line.
3 min From the resulting corner, Pulisic’s near-post header flashes right across the face of goal before Ricardo hooks it away from inside the six-yard box. Chelsea could be 3-0 up!
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2 min Another chance for Chelsea! It was made again by Giroud, who laid the ball off to Mount on the edge of the area. His low shot was pushed away by Schmeichel, who got straight to his feet to block with the follow-up from Pulisic.
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1 min Pedro slams a volley into the side-netting after 48 seconds. Azpilicueta’s cross from the right was chested neatly towards him by Giroud, and he belted a volley just wide of the near post.
1 min Peep peep! Chelsea get the match under way. They are in blue; Leicester are in their pink change kit.
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There’s been a late refereeing substitution, with Oliver Langford replacing Graham Scott, who was - and you’ll like this - stuck in traffic.
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The players are in the tunnel. Cesar Azpilicueta already looks like he wants to hurt someone.
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In the early game, Sheffield United’s upbeat start to Premier League life continued with a 1-0 win over Crystal Palace.
“Hmmm, be honest,” says Matt Dony, “how much attention are you really going to be paying to the football this afternoon?”
Mate, I’ve spent the last 30 minutes
desperately trying to find a split-screen function on my TV
analysing Leicester’s heat maps from last weekend. I’ve got my eyes on the ball.
Unlike Marcus Labuschagne, lol.
If you’re a cricket fan, you might want to join Tim de Lisle, because Jofra Archer is bowling another monstrous spell at Lord’s.
Pre-match reading
Sheffield United are playing Crystal Palace in the early game - and you won’t believe the score.
Team news
Chelsea (4-2-3-1) Kepa; Azpilicueta, Christensen, Zouma, Emerson; Kante, Jorginho; Pedro, Mount, Pulisic; Giroud.
Substitutes: Caballero, Alonso, Tomori, Barkley, Kovacic, Abraham, Willian.
Leicester (4-1-4-1) Schmeichel; Ricardo, Evans, Soyuncu, Fuchs; Ndidi; Perez, Tielemans, Choudhury, Maddison; Vardy.
Substitutes: Ward, Justin, Morgan, Albrighton, Barnes, Praet, Iheanacho.
Referee Oliver Langford.
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Preamble
Hello. Usually, when a Big Six team hosts a member of the Peedie 14, it feels like the game will be a formality. It gives me the greatest pleasure to report that, today, that isn’t the case. Leicester will come to play, as Brendan Rodgers’s sides always do, and have the ability to give Chelsea’s defence another trying afternoon.
Chelsea had a miserable start to the season, losing 4-0 in that peculiar match at Old Trafford, but there was plenty of encouragement in their Super Cup performance against Liverpool. N’Golo Kante makes such a difference to their team, while the important Antonio Rudiger should be back soon.
Both teams have an abundance of neat, technical attacking midfielders, so this should be good fun. A win for Leicester would be a decent statement of intent to infiltrate the top six; a win for Chelsea would end this dispiriting nonsense about Frank Lampard being under pressure.
Kick off is at 4.30pm.
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