Jonathan Liew was at the King Power. His report has landed. Here it is! Click and enjoy. Thanks for reading this MBM.
Brendan Rodgers gives his verdict to BT. “It was an awful start to the game. We were so passive and lacked energy in our pressing. We made it far too easy. We can defend both goals better. The first one, we were disappointed with a referee. It was a foul. But we should do better. The second we gave away possession and we can do better. Two really soft goals. The keeper has made a great save. We changed the system, and in the second half we were much the better team. The keeper makes some great saves, and then you rue the start. Apart from that, Kasper didn’t have too much to do.”
Mikel Arteta speaks to BT. “I was really happy against a top team. The way we played the first half, the way we had to suffer, and how we managed the game in the last 20 minutes. I am really happy. We started the game really well. We knew they would get at us in the second half, they created issues. But we modified a few things and got control back in the game. We need to carry on. We are still not where we want to be. There are a lot of positives, but there are things to improve.”
Big praise for Aaron Ramsdale from Kasper’s dad.
Best save I’ve seen for years by Ramsdale👏👏👏
— Peter Schmeichel (@Pschmeichel1) October 30, 2021
Arsenal celebrate their deserved win. The damage was done after 18 minutes, thanks to goals from Gabriel and Emile Smith Rowe. Leicester came back at the visitors, but Gunners keeper Aaron Ramsdale was inspired, and there was no way back into the match. That’s seven unbeaten in the Premier League for Arsenal, who rise to fifth spot, at least for a couple of hours. Leicester stay in tenth.
FULL TIME: Leicester City 0-2 Arsenal
It’s the first time Arsenal have won three consecutive matches at Leicester since 1925.
90 min +4: Brendan Rodgers claps encouragement on the touchline, but he knows his team are toast.
90 min +3: Schmeichel launches forward. Tomiyasu sends it right back. “Tomiyasu doesn’t always do things that show up in the match report but I feel like he’s been a huge factor in Arsenal’s defensive solidity of late,” writes Zach Neeley.
90 min +2: Arsenal play keepball. This is textbook clock management.
90 min: Kolasinac comes on for Smith Rowe. There will be five added minutes.
88 min: Soumare, under no pressure, rakes a simple pass straight out of play. Leicester have given it a go in this second half, but they look a beaten docket now. Much of their frustration comes courtesy of Aaron Ramsdale, who has been named man of the match by Lucy Ward on BT Sport.
86 min: Smith Rowe has the chance to send Pepe clear, as Arsenal run at a Leicester defence that had overcommitted to attack. He plays the pass behind his team-mate, allowing Castagne to intercept. That should have set the seal on it.
84 min: Pepe comes on for Saka.
83 min: Lookman probes down the right. He can’t quite get through. Tielemans has a shot from distance. It’s deflected out for a corner, from which nothing comes. Arsenal have defended staunchly in this second half.
82 min: Odegaard takes his sweet time to get back up, winding up the home support no end.
81 min: Leicester are giving it one last push. Barnes dribbles into the box. There’s no way through. Barnes then crosses from the left. Vardy takes a swipe but can’t connect properly. Odegaard goes down, having taken a whack on the foot, and the game stops.
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79 min: Vardy slides a clever pass down the inside-left channel for Barnes, who takes a shot from a tight angle. Ramsdale parries again, then claims the corner. He’s almost single-handedly denied Leicester a second-half comeback.
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77 min: Arsenal have slowed it down, a state of affairs leading to much Leicester frustration, both on field and in the stand.
75 min: Vardy is booked for leaving a late one on White’s boot.
74 min: Tielemans crosses from the right. Barnes meets it ten yards out, level with the right-hand post. His stooping, diagonal header flies inches wide of the left-hand post, Ramsdale rooted to the spot.
73 min: Odegaard and Saka combine nicely down the right. Saka scampers into space but can’t find anyone in yellow with his cutback.
71 min: Daka comes on for Maddison. Saka tries a curler towards the top left. Miles high. Arsenal are suddenly carrying a threat again, though.
69 min: From the free kick, Aubameyang pearls a volley right to left, across the face of goal. Corner, from which Aubameyang nearly scores, forcing the ball towards the bottom right. Schmeichel hacking clear with a firm boot.
68 min: Evans is booked for a wrestling move on Aubameyang as they battle a long ball down the middle. Arsenal think it’s a clear goalscoring opportunity, but though Evans was the last man, the incident was miles from goal and there were other blue shirts nearby.
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67 min: Tielemans curls in from the right. Vardy stoops and steers a header wide right of goal. A decent half-chance, that.
65 min: Barnes shoots straight at panto villain Ramsdale. “I am struggling to think of a more immediately transformative signing in Arsenal’s recent history than Aaron Ramsdale,” writes Paul Fulcher. “Bergkamp took some time to make a real impact; Vieira was part of a wider Wenger revolution; Henry didn’t score for 8 games; Wright displaced Alan Smith’s goals. But Ramsdale stands in a class of his own (probably cue a Leicester comeback, where he makes three howlers).”
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63 min: Ramsdale is at the centre of everything right now. Barnes bustles into the Arsenal area down the left and tries to force home. Ramsdale isn’t having it. Block. Corner. Goal kick. Then Ramsdale turns and punches the air in the pantomime style after the home fans give him the what for. A huge smile plays across his face. All good knockabout stuff.
61 min: Ramsdale and Evans compete for a high ball in the Arsenal box. Evans’ knee connects with the keeper’s coccyx in mid-air. Cue nose-to-nose exchange of opinions. It all blows over quickly enough.
60 min: Tielemans bursts into the box from the right and pearls a shot that’s deflected out for yet another corner. Arsenal clear it easily enough.
59 min: The set piece isn’t all that. Leicester are getting closer and closer.
58 min: Odegaard comes on for Lacazette. Then Vardy slips Lookman in down the right. Lookman enters the box and slams low and hard from a tight angle. Ramsdale spreads himself, a fine save that comes at the cost of a corner.
57 min: A Leicester free kick in the centre circle is hoisted into the Arsenal box. Some head tennis. Finally Tielemans lumps over the bar from the edge of the area.
56 min: Lookman and Castagne combine neatly down the right. The latter pulls back from the byline, looking for Vardy. Gabriel is on hand to blast out for a corner. Nothing comes of the set piece, but Leicester are beginning to ask questions now.
55 min: They’re very close to scoring here, though, Tielemans sending Thomas into the box down the left. Thomas’s low diagonal drive whistles inches wide of the right-hand post.
54 min: Leicester are bossing this in terms of possession now, though Ramsdale hasn’t had his hands warmed since the restart.
52 min: Maddison creams a pass down the right for Vardy, who throws his arms out wide, wondering where the other blue shirts are. There’s nobody up with him, but he does extremely well to pull back for the only team-mate anywhere near, Barnes arriving on the edge of the D and pinball-flippering a first-time shot wide left. That would have been something.
50 min: Soumare spins around Partey and into acres down the middle. Arsenal are pushed back. Vardy and Barnes take turns to hassle the visitors down the left. Eventually Barnes crosses deep. Too deep. Goal kick. But better from Leicester, who didn’t exactly fly out of the blocks at the start this second half . “Arteta is beginning to look like the kind of manager Manchester United need,” suggests Gary Naylor. “A month is a long time in football.”
48 min: Tavares earns Arsenal a corner down the left. Smith Rowe takes. He can’t beat the first man. Castagne heads clear.
47 min: Aubameyang drops deep and charges down the left. He’s so close to finding Smith Rowe in the box with his forward slide-rule pass, but it’s inches away.
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Leicester get the ball rolling for the second half. Brendan Rodgers has decided to shake things up, replacing Amartey and Iheanacho with Barnes and Lookman, in an attempt to get a bit more width.
Half-time entertainment.
HALF TIME: Leicester City 0-2 Arsenal
Arsenal deserve this. Will Leicester’s free-kick close shave inspire a comeback, or take all the wind from their sail? Second half coming up!
45 min: That was an astonishing sequence of events. Maddison’s brilliant free kick. Ramsdale’s acrobatic flip onto the bar. The ball refusing to drop down over the line. Evans’ forcing it goalwards again, only for Partey to hook clear as it rolled right to left along the goalline. Leicester will feel sick.
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44 min: Brendan Rodgers looks around in vain for an Azerbaijani linesman.
43 min: Astonishing! Maddison whips the free kick towards the top right. It’s heading in, but Ramsdale flips up and onto the crossbar. What a save! The ball drops inches to the right of the post. Evans reacts first, and tries to force home. The ball squirts under Ramsdale’s body and across the face of goal. Partey hooks clear. How did that not go in? What a stunning save by Ramsdale!
Photograph: Michael Regan/Getty Images
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42 min: A free kick for Leicester on the edge of the D, Maddison having been nudged in the back of his noggin by White. The eyes of quite a few Leicester players light up. A goal here would change everything, and the sun’s shining into Ramsdale’s eyes. Big test coming up.
41 min: Partey is close to releasing Saka down the right with a clever reverse pass, but there’s too much oomph this time, and the ball flies out for a goal kick.
39 min: Tielemans latches onto a bouncing ball. It sits up nicely for him. He’s in FA Cup final range here. But he doesn’t get any oomph on his shot, which politely sails into the arms of Ramsdale.
37 min: Arsenal’s turn for a bit of the old sterile possession.
35 min: Leicester are seeing plenty of the ball now, which wasn’t the case during the first 20 minutes. But they’re still struggling to pull Arsenal out of shape. All a bit ponderous.
33 min: On the touchline, Mikel Arteta gees up his players with ferocious applause. He’s as intense as they come. He’s Pep’s protégé all right.
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31 min: Tomiyasu then shows his worth up the other end, sliding to intercept Maddison’s pass down the left channel, intended for Vardy. Had he not hooked that clear, Vardy was in.
30 min: Tomiyasu tears down the right on the overlap, freed by Saka. He whistles a low cross towards the near post. Schmeichel does very well to smother and keep hold of the ball, for yellow shirts were lurking.
29 min: Vardy wedges Iheanacho clear down the middle, but Tavares responds well to harry and clear, and it turns out the striker was a mile offside anyway.
28 min: ... and now they’re this close to scoring. Iheanacho drops a shoulder to make some space down the right channel. He pearls a curler towards the top left. Ramsdale fingertips the goalbound effort around the post. The resulting corner’s no good, but finally the Foxes are giving their fans a bit of hope. The crowd respond accordingly. It’s a good atmosphere.
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27 min: More patient Leicester pass-pass-pass, and suddenly Tielemans slips a forensic pass down the inside right, nearly releasing Vardy. There’s a little bit too much pace on the pass, and Ramsdale comes out to claim, but Leicester are at last putting a few moves together.
25 min: Leicester ping it around the back awhile, but Arsenal’s press is relentless, and the hosts struggle to get out of their final third. The ball twice ends up back at Schmeichel’s feet. But finally they succeed in entering Arsenal territory. Castagne’s right-wing cross is easily blocked by Gabriel - a good test for that knee - and Arsenal clear. Slightly better from Leicester, but only slightly.
23 min: Gabriel goes down with nobody near him. The physio comes on and takes a look at his knee. Eventually the player gets up. Looks like he’s good to continue, for now at least.
21 min: Half a sniff for Iheanacho, chasing a long pass down the inside left. But Gabriel is across quickly to intercept, then send the striker the wrong way with a shake of the hips, before clearing. The away fans are enjoying this very much.
19 min: That move started when Vardy and Maddison confused each other in trying to hit Arsenal on the counter. Leicester are all over the shop, though it’s worth stressing that Arsenal are pressing like champions.
GOAL! Leicester City 0-2 Arsenal (Smith Rowe 18)
This is too easy for Arsenal. Saka glides down the right, sent into space by Partey. He makes it all the way to the box, then rolls across to tee up Lacazette. His shot is blocked and pinballs towards Smith Rowe, running into the box. He meets it first time and slams a sidefoot past Schmeichel and into the centre of the goal.
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16 min: Arsenal are stroking the ball around in a very pretty, pacy style. They edge their way upfield in a progressive fashion. Suddenly Tavares turns on the jets, then slips Lacazette into the box down the right. Yet another corner is won. It’s half cleared. Saka hoicks back into the box. Tomiyasu wins a header on the left-hand edge of the six-yard box. Leicester finally hack clear, but they’re hanging on a little bit here.
14 min: Lokonga shoots from distance. The ball deflects wide right for a corner. Saka delivers. Amartey clears. The home crowd are becoming a wee bit impatient with Arsenal’s early dominance.
12 min: Maddison batters an uncharacteristically witless free kick straight into the wall, then scoops the rebound over it, the ball harmlessly dropping for Ramsdale to gather.
11 min: Partey sends a dipping curler towards the bottom left from 25 yards. Schmeichel parries then gathers. Leicester need to get a grip, and Maddison moves to shift the momentum, bustling down the other end and drawing a foul from White, 25 yards out, in a fairly central position.
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10 min: Smith Rowe dances past Amartey with ease. He makes good down the left, but Amartey does well to get back and apply a bit of pressure, and Smith Rowe eventually shanks his cross high into the stand behind the goal. Arsenal look confident, though.
8 min: Leicester will of course point to Saka’s challenge on Soumare in the build-up to the corner that led to the corner that led to the goal. But it was made in the centre circle, and look at everything that came inbetween times.
6 min: Aubameyang nearly makes it a quickfire one-two, bursting down the left, entering the box and whistling a low shot towards the near post. Schmeichel, perhaps rocked by Arsenal’s fast start, nearly spills the drive into the bottom-left corner, but quickly gathers himself and the ball.
GOAL! Leicester City 0-1 Arsenal (Gabriel 5)
The corner’s whipped in hard from the right by Saka. It skims off the head of Vardy and on to Gabriel, who guides a header across Schmeichel and into the top left at pace. Easy as that, and that had been coming, five minutes or no.
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4 min: Smith Rowe floats the corner in from the left. White flicks on. Vardy flicks it out for a second corner, this time from the right. And from that ...
3 min: ... and to illustrate that, a loose backpass nearly lets Vardy in. Ramsdale blooters clear. Arsenal go up the other end and win a corner, though the home fans aren’t happy, as Saka clattered Soumare in the build-up. It should have been a free kick.
2 min: Leicester have barely touched the ball. Early days, of course.
50 seconds: A stunning dribble in from the right by Saka. He one-twos with Lacazette and reaches the corner of the six-yard box. He passes across the face of goal. The ball clanks off Amartey and threatens to dribble into the bottom right. Schmeichel smothers. Nearly the fastest of starts by Arsenal!
Arsenal get the ball rolling ... but only after the knee is taken. The players clapped for the gesture. Here we go, then.
First up, though, a rendition of the Last Post. A poppy mosaic in the stand. Wreaths laid by both managers in remembrance of the fallen. RIP.
The teams are out! Leicester take to the King Power, the fans going like the clappers with their clappers. A rare old noise. Leicester play in their royal blue, while Arsenal are in second-choice yellow, a lovely retro cannon on their chest. No AFC balls, though, which is something of a shame. We’ll be off in a minute, together we’ll be OK.
Rick Harris writes: “With Spurs v United being labelled by some ‘El Sackico’, has the Guardian employed its Italian football correspondent to stake out Antonio Conte in case, in the event of another United defeat, Conte rushes to the nearest airport for a Manchester bound flight?” Now you’d assume we’d set this email aside for this evening’s MBM. But this is relevant to Leicester as well, because Brendan Rodgers is being heavily touted for the United job too, and he’s now second favourite behind Conte with the bookies! A clear second favourite, at that: you can get a best price of 4s for the Leicester boss, while third-favourite Zinedine Zidane is way out at 12. Should United opt to wait until summer for Rodgers, as is being suggested elsewhere, that’d rustle a fair few feathers. Matt Busby was a former Liverpool captain when he took over at Old Trafford in 1945, but the past is a different country, and this would be on a different level altogether. Buy plenty of popcorn. Buy plenty of shares in popcorn.
Mikel Arteta talks to BT. “We are on track. We have improved a lot. We just want to keep improving and getting better. It will be an even and competitive match. Leicester use the spaces really well as a team. They are a great threat.”
Brendan Rodgers speaks to BT Sport: “We have returned to the fundamentals, better tempo, stronger organisation. Ricardo Pereira has felt a bit of tightness in both his hamstrings, he should be better for next week. It’s always a big challenge playing Arsenal, we’re looking forward to it. We’ve got a good mentality in the team and we’ve got to keep it going.”
The Carabao Cup quarter-final draw has just been made. It’s better news for Arsenal than it is for Leicester, on the face of it, but of course in the League Cup, you never truly know what’s going on until you see the teamsheets on the day.
- Tottenham Hotspur v West Ham United
- Arsenal v Sunderland
- Brentford v Chelsea
- Liverpool v Leicester City
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Just the one change from last weekend’s 2-1 win over Brentford for Leicester City. Ricardo Pereira is injured so Luke Thomas steps up.
Arsenal are unchanged from their 3-1 victory over Aston Villa last Friday week. Kieran Tierney still hasn’t recovered from his sore ankle, but Ben White is better after a short illness.
The teams
Leicester City: Schmeichel, Amartey, Evans, Soyuncu, Castagne, Tielemans, Soumare, Thomas, Maddison, Iheanacho, Vardy.
Subs: Bertrand, Barnes, Ward, Choudhury, Dewsbury-Hall, Vestergaard, Ndidi, Daka, Lookman.
Arsenal: Ramsdale, Tomiyasu, White, Gabriel, Tavares, Saka, Partey, Sambi Lokonga, Smith-Rowe, Lacazette, Aubameyang.
Subs: Leno, Odegaard, Maitland-Niles, Holding, Cedric, Pepe, Elneny, Kolasinac, Martinelli.
Referee: Michael Oliver (Northumberland).
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Preamble
A very intriguing match to start the weekend, between two in-form teams who have gathered themselves together after a slow start to the season. Leicester are beginning to rattle in the goals (their last five hauls: two, four, four, two and two) while Arsenal have quietly pieced together an eight-match unbeaten run. The Foxes have won four of their last seven Premier Leaguer matches against Arsenal; on the flip side, the Gunners won twice at the King Power last season, in league and cup. A deliciously poised lunchtime kick-off, then. Proceedings begin at 12.30pm BST. It’s on!
