Leicester City are in danger of turning into an unstoppable winning machine. The endless hard-luck stories that have plagued them for much of the season have been replaced by an unmistakeable sense of belief and, as bizarre as it may sound, one of the greatest escapes in Premier League history could be completed with the minimum amount of fuss if Leicester continue in this manner.
Based solely on their performance, Nigel Pearson’s side did not deserve to beat Burnley. Yet they won 1-0. “Not a great game, was it?” Pearson said. “The result is more important than the performance.” Leicester’s manager was under no illusions.
It could have been a different story if Matt Taylor had given Burnley the lead with his penalty in the 59th minute, but he missed, and Jamie Vardy scored Leicester’s winner 60 seconds later.
The match was a grim spectacle, weighed down by the pressure of the occasion, and there was rarely any flow to Leicester’s football. Yet they have developed a winning habit in the past month and their fourth successive victory means they are out of the bottom three for the first time since November.
They are a point above Sunderland with five matches left and host Chelsea on Wednesday, although Pearson stressed that his players must maintain their focus.
Vardy was Leicester’s hero, just as he was against West Bromwich Albion a fortnight ago, and this was a harrowing defeat for Burnley. Their supporters were tearing their hair out by the end. This was a wasted opportunity.
Sean Dyche’s side fought until the last whistle and it is guaranteed that they will not give up until survival is mathematically impossible. Yet Burnley are bottom with four matches left – three of them away from home – and, if they go down, they will look back at the moment when Taylor sent Kasper Schmeichel the wrong way with his penalty, only to see the ball hit the left post and spin wide. “The game is cruel sometimes,” Dyche said. “We miss a penalty, they score 60 seconds later.”
Dyche struck a mood of defiance, but this felt like a game that Burnley needed to win. Then again, Leicester looked dead and buried not that long ago, no matter how many times you left their matches willing them to turn impressive, gutsy performances into something more substantial. They were winning plaudits rather than points, each ‘so near yet so far’ moment pushing them closer to the Premier League’s trapdoor.
The mood changed when Leicester beat West Ham United at the start of April and last weekend’s win over Swansea City hauled them off the bottom of the table for the first time in 140 days, although history is still against them; no team has survived after spending that long at the foot of the table. Yet there is little a struggling side values more than momentum.
What Burnley would give for a taste of the stuff. It is not hard to pinpoint the source of their problems. If Dyche told his players to run in today’s London Marathon, they would sprint to the start line, but they have scored only three goals in their past 10 matches (curiously they came against Chelsea, Manchester City and Manchester United).
Their attacking deficiencies were exacerbated by the absence of the suspended Ashley Barnes and the injured Sam Vokes. The goals have dried up for Danny Ings and it was telling that his partner, Lukas Jutkiewicz, has not scored this season.
Ings was often starved of service by Leicester’s three-man defence and Burnley, huffing and puffing in the final third, were reliant on set-pieces. They threatened once in the first half, from a corner, but Taylor could not force the ball past Schmeichel from close range.
Leicester were not much better, and when they lost their shape at the start of the second half, Burnley almost capitalised. Jutkiewicz and Ings linked up for the first time, the latter’s shot was saved by Schmeichel, and Paul Konchesky clumsily brought down Taylor on the right side of the Leicester area.
Yet, soon, Taylor was crumpled in a heap on the penalty spot, his head in his hands, and what happened next was predictable. Michael Duff inadvertently diverted Marc Albrighton’s dangerous cross goalwards and, although Tom Heaton clawed the ball out, Vardy scored from a yard out.
Burnley roused themselves in the final 10 minutes. Schmeichel made a wonderful reaction save from Ben Mee’s deflected volley and Ross Wallace, on in place of George Boyd, clipped a shot straight at the Leicester goalkeeper.
There were six minutes of stoppage time and even Heaton was in the Leicester area as Burnley threw everything at the visiting team’s defence in their search for an equaliser. The sound of Anthony Taylor’s final whistle, however, was met with deflation from the Burnley supporters and unbridled elation in the away end.
