Leicester City midfielder Wilfred Ndidi has admitted that he did not know Mason Mount was near him after being caught in possession by the Chelsea midfielder for the opening goal of the game.
Ndidi was dispossessed by Mount in the seventh minute of the game at Stamford Bridge as the 20-year-old opened the scoring for the Blues on his home debut in the Premier League.
And Sky Sports pundit Graeme Souness was critical of the Nigerian midfielder when analysing the goal during the coverage of the game.
“It’s still under his feet with his [Wilfred Ndidi] first touch, it should have been a wee bit stronger so it’s out of his feet, and he could have played it two-touch. But give credit to Mason Mount who is after him, smelled blood and got after him.
“But for Ndidi accepting the ball in that situation, you’ve got to assume, worst case scenario, ‘someone’s coming at me’, and he didn’t, he thought he had more time than he actually did.”
And the Nigerian midfielder has conceded that he did not know of Mount's whereabouts as he reflected on the goal, and his part in it.
“It’s football. I just try to move on. No, I did not [know Mount was there]," Ndidi admitted.
Ndidi atoned for his error in the second half though, netting the equaliser as Leicester ended up with a point, although it could have been all three, with the Foxes missing some good chances to win the game.
"We actually put a poor first half aside, and we were asked to push up and forget about the one goal they scored, and we just had to react," he said.
“It’s a mixed feeling, you know. We tried a couple of times in training with Madders [Maddison] and he told me I was going to score.
Meanwhile, his team-mate James Maddison said he and the rest of his team-mates were left disappointed not to win the game, after missing late chances following Ndidi's equaliser.
“Definitely, yeah. You see the lads on their knees there, because ultimately we’re coming away disappointed," he told Sky Sports.
"We had chances, myself included and if you come to Stamford Bridge and play like that in the second half, you have to score the chances you create and I’m sure we’ll watch that game back and be disappointed we haven’t come away with three, yeah.”
