Having endured his fair share of criticism during a tumultuous season, it would have been understandable if Nigel Pearson was in a self-congratulatory mood after Leicester’s impressive comeback at The Hawthorns. The manager was in no mood to celebrate his team moving to within three points of safety, though, instead choosing to temper expectations. His team are eating into the deficit but the hard work is yet to come.
Leicester were behind twice but Jamie Vardy’s injury-time winner, after Robert Huth equalised in the 80th minute, left Leicester, who have been bottom since November, with a good chance of completing what many had deemed to be impossible. The fixture list is also favourable: five of their remaining seven games are at home and Chelsea are the only top-six side they need to play.
“We can’t spend too much time patting ourselves on the back,” Pearson said. “We’ve got a lot of work left to do still. We’ve got a lot of tough games and we need to apply a bit more pressure on the sides around us. It’s important to reflect on what has happened, not with caution but with a certain perspective.” Momentum is theirs, however, courtesy of a first set of consecutive wins since August. “It applies pressure psychologically on other sides but we still have to do it ourselves,” Pearson said. “We still have to win games. We can’t do much about the other teams’ run-ins.”
The defeat for West Brom drew them into the battle for survival. They have a seven-point cushion but after shipping seven goals in two games against teams in the bottom three, Albion now face a daunting spell that includes Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester United and Liverpool.
“It’s a tough run-in,” said Tony Pulis. “We’re just hoping we get a couple of good breaks. A lot of the teams play each other as well so they’re going to take the points off each other.”
Pulis has always prided himself on defensive resilience, so it was understandable that he was upset with another poor showing at the back. He singled out Gareth McAuley who was robbed of possession in the lead-up to Vardy’s winner. “We’re shooting ourselves in the foot. Individual mistakes are costing us,” Pulis said. “Gareth is facing away from goal. He can play it up the line or play it to [Craig] Dawson. Why the hell he wants to let it run across him, goodness knows.”
Man of the match Robert Huth (Leicester City)
