First Crystal Palace, then Wolverhampton Wanderers, now Leicester City: three defeats in the space of eight days, and at arguably the worst time of the season, mean that Arsenal’s hopes of a top-four finish are unravelling. Frustration was written all over Unai Emery’s face on an afternoon when Arsenal imploded and the Spaniard lost his cool.
The early dismissal of Ainsley Maitland-Niles sparked an angry reaction from the Arsenal manager, yet that red card was a long way from being the defining factor in this chastening defeat. Arsenal looked meek and brittle when it was 11 v 11 and once again their defending was desperately poor individually and collectively. Alarm bells must be ringing given that this is the first time since 1967 that Arsenal have conceded three goals in three successive top-flight matches.
Youri Tielemans, who has been so impressive since joining Leicester on loan from Monaco, headed the home team in front and there are no prizes for guessing who got the second and third goals. Jamie Vardy, who has been transformed since Brendan Rodgers took over as manager, extended his remarkable record against the club he rejected the chance to join in the summer of 2016. The 32-year-old has now scored eight goals in his last seven matches against Arsenal, with his brace here taking his Premier League tally for the season to 18.
Those two goals may have arrived late but they were no more than Leicester deserved after comprehensively outplaying Arsenal. Aggressive with their pressing – young Hamza Choudhury caught the eye with his combative presence in midfield – and dynamic going forward, Leicester registered 12 shots on target compared with Arsenal’s one. It was embarrassingly one-sided at times and a little baffling to listen to Emery’s assessment afterwards. “The players worked very well and I am proud of them,” the Arsenal manager said.
In Emery’s eyes everything came back to the dismissal of Maitland-Niles, even when he was quizzed on the 1967 statistic that highlighted the scale of the defensive problems Arsenal have had across their last three matches, not just here. “The first yellow card [for Maitland-Niles] is not for me,” said Emery. “It has affected our gameplan a lot.”
Rodgers, perhaps not surprisingly, saw things differently and it was hard to argue with the Leicester manager’s view that Michael Oliver, the referee, was right to give Maitland-Niles an early yellow card for fouling Ben Chilwell and “stopping the counter-attack”. Although Emery threw his arms in the air in despair and several Arsenal players argued with Oliver, it was notable that Maitland-Niles never complained. Either way, the Arsenal right-back was playing with fire when he brought down James Maddison later in the first half, leading to a second yellow card.
Leicester had already caused Arsenal plenty of problems by that stage, in particular through the movement and pace of Vardy, who lifted one shot over the barafter escaping in the inside-right channel and had another saved by Bernd Leno. The Arsenal goalkeeper also produced a one-handed stop to keep out Wilfred Ndidi’s header and repelled a third Vardy effort just before half-time.
Emery sacrificed Alex Iwobi, who was responsible for that solitary Arsenal effort on target with a left-footed shot that Kasper Schmeichel blocked with an outstretched boot, and brought on Laurent Koscielny at the start of the second half, yet Leicester continued to dominate and it seemed only a matter of when, not if, they would score.
That moment arrived just before the hour-mark. Maddison, who was afforded so much time and space, delivered an inviting cross that picked out Tielemans’s intelligent run. Granit Xhaka, for reasons only he knows, made no attempt to track Tielemans and it was a lovely header that the midfielder directed beyond Leno from about 10 yards.
Emery became increasingly irritated on the touchline, leading to a lengthy conversation with Oliver at one point in the second half. Arsenal’s biggest problems were of their own making, however, and it was alarming to see how easily Leicester carved them open, even allowing for their numerical advantage. Leno denied Ricardo Pereira and Harvey Barnes in close succession before Vardy scored his first in bizarre circumstances.
Schmeichel drilled a long straight kick upfield and, inexplicably, neither Sokratis Papastathopoulos nor Koscielny was able to deal with the ball. Vardy scampered in behind and headed in the rebound after his first effort had come back off the bar. Pereira then glided past Koscielny to set up Vardy for a tap-in with what proved the final kick of the game.
“A very good performance. We didn’t waste any time today. We showed we are a good side,” said Rodgers, whose team are up to eighth. “We were really aggressive in our pressing and really connected as a team.”
