Riyad Mahrez was nowhere to be seen and it was hard to escape the feeling that Leicester were not the same team without their talisman. The Algerian’s value is clear – Leicester have failed to win the four Premier League matches that Mahrez has missed since the start of last season – and Claude Puel must curse that moment when Manchester City came knocking on their door just before transfer deadline day.
Although Leicester started brightly and took a deserved lead through Jamie Vardy’s 13th goal of the season, they lost their way in the second half and lacked the creativity and imagination to break down a resolute Swansea side after Federico Fernández had punished some poor defending to equalise.
Leicester resorted to pumping long balls into the Swansea area in the second half as frustration grew among the home supporters and it was tempting to wonder how much different life may have been had Mahrez been weaving his magic on the wing. The 26-year-old has not showed up for training since last Monday, however, and it is impossible for anyone to say when he will be wearing a Leicester shirt again. “Riyad is not my preoccupation straight after the game,” Puel said.
The Leicester manager was clearly exasperated that his side had allowed two points to slip through their fingers at the end of an extremely testing week. “A big frustration,” said Puel as he reflected on the way that Leicester, who were utterly dominant against Swansea for the first half an hour, failed to add a second goal before the interval. “We played very well but without finding the clinical edge.”
Carlos Carvalhal, in contrast, was delighted with the way that Swansea recovered in the second half to continue their upward path and collect the precious point that lifts them out of the relegation zone. “A point is like gold for us at the moment,” said Carvalhal, who has lost one of his six league games in charge.
The only bad news for Swansea was the potentially serious Achilles injury that caused Leroy Fer to leave the pitch on a stretcher in the first half. By that stage, Swansea were a goal behind after Vardy, set up by Kelechi Iheanacho, expertly opened up his body to steer the ball beyond Lukasz Fabianski.
Leicester should have had a second 12 minutes later but Fabianski repelled Fousseni Diabaté’s shot and Iheanacho’s follow-up effort was blocked on the line by Alfie Mawson.
That felt like a turning point, especially when Fernández got away from Christian Fuchs to head home Ki Sung-yueng’s corner and punish the sort of slack marking on set-pieces that has been a feature of Leicester’s season.
Although Diabaté side-footed a first-time effort narrowly wide later on, after a nice exchange with Vardy, that was a rare Leicester chance in a second half when the home team huffed and puffed without much finesse.
