Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Leicester vs Chelsea result: Player ratings as Foxes earn dominant win to top Premier League table

Leicester 2-0 Chelsea: Ndidi and Maddison struck in the first half to send the Foxes to the summit

Karl Matchett
Tuesday 19 January 2021 22:09 GMT
Comments
(POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

Leicester City went top of the Premier League with a 2-0 win over Chelsea on Tuesday night.

The Foxes took an early lead after a short corner was worked back to Wilf Ndidi and he hammered in a left-footed shot which flew in off the post. Leicester stayed on the front foot and James Maddison’s strike from range hit the crossbar soon after, but after Frank Lampard’s side went close through Callum Hudson-Odoi, Maddison buried a second for the home team just before the break.

Marc Albrighton turned in another strike just after the restart, only to be shown to be offside, while Chelsea created a handful of their own openings without having any measure of control on the game.

READ MORE: Premier League fixtures and table - all matches by date and kick-off time

Lampard made changes in attack to try and force the issue, but Brendan Rodgers’ side, if anything, found the going easier from a defensive standpoint the longer the second half went on and they thoroughly merited the points earned with the full-time whistle. Here are the player ratings from the match at the King Power Stadium:

Leicester

Kasper Schmeichel - 7. Good distribution and made the odd stop.

Timothy Castagne - 8. Largely impressive in both halves of the pitch.

Wes Fofana - 8. Some tremendous showings of pace on the cover challenge. Aerially dominant.

Johnny Evans - 6. Almost conceded a penalty but otherwise did mostly well.

James Justin - 8. Often an outlet, went close to scoring with a good header at the far post, defensively excellent throughout.

Wilf Ndidi - 8. Dominated midfield, gave Chelsea’s runners no space and scored a cracker.

Youri Tielemans - 7. Rarely wastes possession and so hard-working.

Marc Albrighton - 7. Might have offered better end product at times but did his job tracking and linking play well.

James Maddison - 8. Hit the bar then scored a fine strike. Always found the gaps in Chelsea’s midfield.

Harvey Barnes - 6. Started well and looked a threat but faded in the second half.

Jamie Vardy - 7. Another game without a goal at home but still fashioned plenty of openings for his team.

James Maddison scores Leicester’s second (Getty Images)

Chelsea

Edouard Mendy - 6. Nothing he could do about the goals and made a couple of other saves.

Reece James - 5. Really struggled on his return to the team. Slow to spot danger and got caught in the wrong positions.

Antonio Rudiger - 5. A good performance last time out was not backed up by consistency. Lost out aerially and on the ground.

Thiago Silva - 6. One or two good covering moments but he didn’t exactly have Jamie Vardy in his pocket.

Ben Chilwell - 5. Another who struggled, Chilwell didn’t have his best day on his return to his former club.

Mateo Kovacic - 6. Tried to carry the fight at times but was left horrendously exposed by the two attacking midfielders ahead of him.

Kai Havertz - 4. Poor in the final third, strolled past in midfield off the ball.

Mason Mount - 5. Hard-working as ever but couldn’t find his best creative levels this time out.

Callum Hudson-Odoi - 6. Had a few good moments with dribbling or shooting in off the right flank but subbed after the hour.

Tammy Abraham - 5. Lacked service and no hold-up play.

Christian Pulisic - 6. Like Hudson-Odoi, had a few sparked-into-life moments with dribbling across the area, but no end product ultimately.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in