Chelsea were again punished for their lack of killer instinct as they were pegged back by Brendan Rodgers’ combative Leicester City side in Frank Lampard’s first home game as manager.
Chelsea frantically sought about unnerving Leicester’s backline in the early stages with Olivier Giroud ensuring the highly coveted Caglar Soyuncu received a rather rude awakening to life in the Premier League. Giroud’s movement and hold up play in and around the edge of the box created a couple of bright openings before Mason Mount pounced upon a Wilfred Ndidi error to open the scoring and seal a dream home debut for the academy graduate.
The romanticism of Mount’s maiden Chelsea strike was soon lost, however, in a cloud of complacency and wearied legs as Leicester adopted a cavalier approach to try and capitalise upon the gaping holes that were beginning to appear between Chelsea’s defence and midfield. With the majority of Lampard’s starting eleven having played near enough 120 minutes in Istanbul, there was an evident drop in intensity and Ndidi, who’d gifted Chelsea the opener, atoned for his mistake with a bullet header from James Maddison’s perfectly weighted corner. Chelsea’s substitutes did little to stem the flow of Leicester pressure, and by full time it would be the Blues who were most relieved to hear the final whistle as they faltered once more in their search for a first competitive victory under Lampard.
