Nuno Espírito Santo will never accept a red card in sweeter circumstances. Deep into three minutes of second-half stoppage-time, he charged towards the corner flag to join the celebrations and the growing pile of delirious Wolves players after Diogo Jota added the seventh goal of this topsy-turvy match – completing a classy hat-trick after applying the finishing touches to another magnificent defence-splitting pass by the regal Rúben Neves.
Jamie Vardy lightened the mood at training in the past week by dressing up as Spider-Man and Leicester thought they had found an unlikely superhero in Wes Morgan, who crashed home a headed equaliser with three minutes remaining, only for Jota to inflict one final blow, slotting home from Raúl Jiménez’s cross to add to the gloom shrouding Claude Puel. An obliging Nuno was sent to the stands by the referee Chris Kavanagh but this kind of agonising defeat – a third in a row and a fifth in the league in eight games – could well send Puel packing. Leicester’s cavalier approach at the end was even more reckless considering how valuable a point could have been given they face Liverpool, Manchester United and Spurs next.
Puel could only grimace with his head in his hands as the stadium erupted, with Nuno guilty of letting the overwhelming elation get the better of him. “It’s difficult to contain your emotions,” the Wolves head coach said. “It’s a very difficult moment, especially because of the way that the game went. After all the situations that passed through the game, it is a tremendous happiness to finish like that for everybody at Molineux. As a manager it’s difficult because there are so many circumstances during the game that I think we should avoid but it was a very good game because both teams went for the game. I don’t know if it’s going to happen again. I’m so, so happy.”
Puel could not have wished for a worse start. Leicester‘s porous defence was exposed throughout and they trailed inside four minutes, by which point Kasper Schmeichel had already made a magnificent left-handed save to deny Neves from adding to his impressive catalogue of long-range strikes. But when Demarai Gray lost possession just inside his own half, Jiménez fed João Moutinho, who stood up an inviting cross. Arriving at the back post, Jota was hungrier than Danny Simpson, the Leicester right-back, and stabbed home.
It proved a recurring theme, with Ryan Bennett unmarked to tower above Harry Maguire and power a header in to double Wolves’ lead. “It was a crazy game,” Puel said. “We conceded all these goals in the first 15 minutes and it is not possible to accept this.”
Wolves should have added a third midway through the first half but Schmeichel gathered Jota’s tame downward header, after the striker eluded a flat-footed Morgan. But whatever Puel said at the break had the desired effect and Leicester were level inside six second-half minutes. First Vardy did superbly to free Gray after Bennett misjudged a bouncing ball on halfway and the Leicester forward galloped into the box before applying a cool finish, drilling the ball across goal and in.
Suddenly Leicester were in the groove and they pulled level on 51 minutes. Ben Chilwell raided down the left flank and Jonny’s interception ran into the path of Harvey Barnes, who lashed home on his Premier League debut, via a kind deflection off Conor Coady. When another sublime Neves pass – a 50-yard ball for Jota – unlocked a frail opposition defence 10 minutes later, the Wolves striker thundered home his second of the afternoon to undo Leicester’s work.
But just as Morgan thought he had snatched an unlikely draw, heading home the substitute James Maddison’s free-kick, Jota had the final say, adding his third – and his side’s fourth – to leave Leicester on their haunches. Neves dispatched a raking ball into the right channel for Jiménez, who crossed for Jota to sweep in. “We were naive,” admitted Puel. “It is a big shame, a big disappointment. It is important in these moments to just run the clock down and finish the game with a fantastic feeling after a difficult game but now we have a negative feeling. We have to correct our inconsistency.”
