As the final whistle blew, half the pitch remained bathed in glorious spring sunshine but the rest was shrouded in deep shadow. On a day when hope and fear collided, when Leicester City moved within touching distance of a most unexpected title and Sunderland were shoved a step nearer to relegation, it seemed a wholly appropriate image.
At the end Claudio Ranieri was crying, Leicester’s manager apparently overwhelmed by his side’s enduring achievements. Emotionally at least Sam Allardyce is far too old-school, much too British, to shed any public tears – of joy or otherwise – but privately Sunderland’s manager must have felt like howling his heart out in despair at the damage done to his team’s survival prospects by Jamie Vardy’s two goals.
In truth Leicester were not at their best and, for lengthy periods, Allardyce’s team held their own, playing reasonably well. Ultimately, though, they lacked a Vardy-esque cutting edge, something emphasised when the substitute Jack Rodwell missed an excellent chance to equalise.
While Vardy’s contribution in the wake of his minor goal drought – none in six league games – was sufficient to preserve the visitors’ formidable lead over Tottenham Hotspur at the top of the table, Sunderland’s fate now looks to hinge on Saturday’s trip to Norwich City.
“It’s a game we’ll try to win but we can’t afford to lose,” said Allardyce, whose team are four points behind Alex Neil’s side with a game in hand. He could have done with travelling to Carrow Road with at least one more point on the board. “A draw against Leicester would have been fantastic but Jack Rodwell missed that chance,” said Sunderland’s manager.
His pain was exacerbated by the fact that Sunderland’s principal “slip” involved a failure to cut out the trademark Leicester long ball that created Vardy’s opener. “Everyone knows they play lots of long balls over the top and we couldn’t afford to give him a chance like that,” Allardyce lamented before indulging in a slight dig at Ranieri’s perceived fundamentalism.
“Leicester are unique,” said Allardyce. “They don’t have to be pretty. Fans of bigger clubs might moan about the way they play but their fans love it. And each of their players is playing better and with more consistency than they’ve ever done in their life. That’s the beauty of it; that’s what confidence gives you.”
Indeed for a team that were supposed to have come over all defensive in the past few weeks, Leicester began in startlingly high-tempo, front-foot mode. It took some last-ditch interceptions and wince-inducing challenges on Sunderland’s part to keep them at bay.
Having caught their breath, Allardyce’s team enjoyed a decent first half with Jan Kirchhoff making his presence felt in central midfield. At 6ft 5in Kirchhoff casts quite a shadow and, at times, even N’Golo Kanté found himself in the unusual position of being eclipsed by the German. With Lee Cattermole also in real ankle-biting, snappy tackling mood, Kanté and Danny Drinkwater certainly had their work cut out.
Cattermole made a couple of vital interventions, most notably to deny the strangely anonymous, unusually erratic, Riyad Mahrez and, even when Sunderland seemed in danger of coming undone at the hands of Leicester counterattacks, Lamine Koné and the initially excellent Younès Kaboul held firm. With Vardy deceptively subdued Vito Mannone did not make a single save until almost an hour had passed.
Considering Kasper Schmeichel was similarly underemployed it had become a day where the game’s fascination lay largely in the assorted midfield sub-plots. Most notable among them was Kanté’s increasingly successful efforts to reimpose himself on proceedings.
Although Sunderland had a half-hearted penalty appeal when Robert Huth appeared to handle Patrick van Aanholt’s cross and Schmeichel, finally called to arms, saved smartly to keep out Fabio Borini’s deflected shot, much of the finishing was either scuffed or horribly wayward.
Perhaps lulled into a false sense of security, Sunderland’s defensive mind-set was about to switch off momentarily. Shortly after seeing Mannone finally required to make a save, the Italian diving to smother Drinkwater’s fairly benign shot following Mahrez’s clever dummy, they succumbed to a by now familiar bout of self-destruction.
With minds and bodies tiring, Allardyce’s players lost concentration as Drinkwater launched a long, looping, simple ball forward. Having flown over the home defence it was met by the rapidly advancing Vardy who, with Kaboul now trailing in his wake, beat Mannone with a ruthlessly incisive shot into the bottom corner from an awkward angle.
It was Vardy’s 20th Premier League goal of an extraordinary season and immediately prompted choruses of “Gonna win the league” from the away end.
The unmarked Rodwell had an ideal chance to silence them but, with time seeming to stand still, the midfielder froze, panicked and sidefooted over the bar from eight yards after a blocked shot had been deflected into his path. When the music stops next month that could be regarded as a very big miss.
It meant victory belonged to Leicester well before the moment, deep in stoppage time, when Vardy sped beyond Van Aanholt, rounded the advancing Mannone and shot into the empty net.
Tottenham really have their work cut out now – and so, too, do Sunderland.
Man of the match Jamie Vardy (Leicester City)
