Manchester City’s Frank Lampard ensures Leicester stay on bottom
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Version 0 of 1. A week ago the sight of Sergio Agüero limping tearfully off the Etihad Stadium pitch prompted some to suggest Manchester City’s season was about to implode, although they went on to beat Everton 1-0. Seven days on, the champions have opened a new £200m academy and training complex, qualified for the last 16 of the Champions League and completed a fifth successive victory in the Premier League. As responses to a setback go, not so dusty. This was not a win without cost for City, however. Manuel Pellegrini is rarely noticeably upbeat but the Chilean was even more lugubrious than usual in confirming his captain, Vincent Kompany, who had not been risked in Rome, had pulled his suspect hamstring when he had to be replaced with 13 minutes remaining. Of even more immediate concern, though, was the fact Edin Dzeko was forced to pull out with a calf problem before kick-off, after being named in the starting line-up. With Stevan Jovetic, who came on as a substitute in Italy, unavailable due to a hamstring problem, City could be facing the Christmas period without their three main forwards. “We’ll have to play another way, keep a clean sheet as we did today,” shrugged Pellegrini. He must know the young José Ángel Pozo, asked to lead the line in Dzeko’s absence at the King Power, is not the answer. The teenager did his best, but he is a lightweight, not strong enough to hold the ball up and bring others into play. For all that Pellegrini did his best to refresh his side – Dzeko’s withdrawal meant only three of the team which started in Rome started here – he found himself watching a laboured performance, during which City rarely got out of second gear. In that respect this was an opportunity for Leicester, but Nigel Pearson’s side lacked both the confidence and cutting edge to take it. The Foxes should have taken the lead when Jamie Vardy’s pace down the middle saw him run away from first Kompany and then Eliaquim Mangala in the 12th minute. The young French defender did well to get back and get a foot in to deflect Vardy’s shot wide, but the Leicester striker should have got his effort away earlier. Ten minutes later, with the visitors yet to fashion an attempt on goal, Esteban Cambiasso curled a 30 yard free-kick a foot wide, with Joe Hart desperately scrambling. The two men exchanged grins, though whether Hart would have been smiling if the ball had crept inside his left-hand post is doubtful. It was half an hour before the home goalkeeper, Ben Hamer, was actually called into serious action, punching away a David Silva corner and then easily catching Pozo’s side-footed volley. The save from Yaya Touré low to his left a few minutes later that followed City’s best passing move of the half was of a much higher quality, and it certainly had to be. Having finally begun to move the ball at pace, the visitors continued to cause problems. Samir Nasri, neat and creative, found space on the left courtesy of Frank Lampard, and having teased and turned Wes Morgan, pulled the ball back across goal for Lampard, whose run into the box had not been picked up, to turn past Hamer from close range. It was the former Chelsea midfielder’s 175th Premier League goal, drawing him level with Thierry Henry in fourth position in that competition’s goalscoring charts. And, of course, football didn’t really exist previously. Nothing really changed over the rest of the game. The Leicester manager, Nigel Pearson, eventually switched to two up front, but for all their efforts, his side could not create another chance. Nasri tested Hamer but this was a case of doing enough. “They showed why they are champions, scored a goal out of nothing and didn’t really create anything else,” said Pearson, who was treated with marked politeness by the supporters after the altercation during the game against Liverpool which has resulted in his facing an FA charge. “We are on the receiving end of another defeat and I don’t think we deserved to be but that’s how it is. There’s no point me being anything other than rational about it. “When you’re adrift that makes it even more difficult psychologically, but I don’t think our players looked like they lacked belief and that will be important.” |