Leicester City has been very impressive in the EPL 2019/20 campaign season. They have won all their league games except the loss to Liverpool the league leaders, Manchester United and with a draw against Chelsea. The Foxes traveled to the Saint Mary Stadium on Friday to play The Saints, it was a sad day for the home side. Southampton registered the worst EPL result in its history.
Leicester City, on the other hand, registered their best English Premier League result. They thrashed the home side nine goals to nil (9-0) which makes them the second English Premier League team to score such amount of goals after Manchester United.
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The victory sees Brendan Rodgers’ troop move to the second position before Manchester City later climbed back to the second position after the win over Aston Villa. Leicester City is now placed in the third position above Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester United. They are, no doubt, now the English Premier League title contenders because they look to repeat what they did four seasons ago.
The result, which matches Manchester United’s 9-0 win against Ipswich in 1995, was only confirmed in the stoppage penalty which Jamie Vardy converted. Jamie Vardy and Ayoze Perez both scored hat-tricks, the result was aided by Ryan Bertrand’s red card in the early minutes of the game for a reckless challenge.
The challenge on Perez opened the goal doors for Leicester, who turned on the style just two days before the first anniversary of the helicopter crash. A crash that killed the club’s former chairman Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha and four other people on board.
Ben Chilwell opened the scoring in the 10th minute before Youri Tielemans registered his third goal of the season. James Maddison through a superb free-kick found the back of the net before Verdy on a miserable evening for Southampton, who drop into the bottom three.
Leicester Sets New EPL Record
Leicester City has now in history recorded the biggest ever victory by an away side in an English top-flight league match in the 131-year history of the Football League.
They inflicted Southampton’s biggest ever defeat as an English league side in all competitions in their history.
Now they are the second team in English Premier League history to establish a five-goal lead in the first half of an away game in the competition. They are also the only the second side in Premier League history to have two players score a hat-trick in the same game (Perez and Vardy), after Arsenal in May 2003 – also against Southampton (Pennant and Pires)
Leicester Notice to the Top EPL Teams
Leicester may not have won all their league games like Liverpool or have the popularity like Manchester City, Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester United. But they have now scored more goals than the league leaders and are just four behind Manchester City.
And the omens look good for Rodgers’ side who have now collected one point more from the opening 10 games of the current season than at the same stage of their title-winning campaign in 2015-16. This clear message to the top English Teams of their intentions to win the league title.
Leicester City has every chance to kick on from their strong start, although Liverpool and Manchester City will prove to be a hindrance to them. Their consistency has been more than that of the second-placed defending champions Manchester city which we can bank on. They just two points behind the Citizens and eight points behind league leader Liverpool.
But the manner in which the Foxes ruthlessly cut through the hosts will serve as a warning to other English Premier League teams. Scoring three goals inside the opening first 19 minutes which is the fastest they have recorded in their history a Premier League match since 1998.
Jamie Vardy is Back and Better
Jamie Vardy has obviously found his scoring boots and he is using them wisely. He has scored nine goals from his last ten games and looks good to score more goals. With the attacker approaching his 33rd birthday, there are no signs about his physical abilities and capabilities.
The hat-trick will surely rise his morale as it is his first hat-trick for almost three years now. His first showed nimbleness and awareness as he cut inside Saints defender Maya Yoshida to drill a close-range effort into the bottom corner. while his second showcased smart movement as he headed past Angus Gunn from close range. His trademark agility with the ball took him clear of the Southampton defense to win and convert a late penalty to complete his hat-trick.
His perfect form and performance were complemented by Perez, who scored his goal of the season for The Foxes before adding two more to complete his Hat-trick. Perez scored the first after finding the bottom-right corner following a neat one-two with Tielemans.
The Spaniard then later converted Chilwell’s pinpoint cross for his second before finding the bottom corner with a left-footed shot to complete his treble.
Leicester manager, Brendan Rodgers, on Match Victory
“I am very pleased to see our work rate, we scored some great goals and we were very hungry tonight. It was horrible weather but our focus was outstanding. I’m very pleased with how we defended, and we were ruthless. I am very proud to stand and be the manager of that team.
“We wanted to get the ball back quickly and attack again. A mark of the good sides is you don’t let up. My team wanted to show they are a good side and they certainly did that in the second half.
“We were ruthlessly simple in our game. When you’re so many goals up you can easily slow but we kept focused. The Boys want to be a top team and to be a top team you must be clinical.
“It was a very good team performance and we’re pleased to keep a clean sheet. It’s good for our goals for but the clean sheet is equally important.”
What’s next?
Leicester will be traveling to Burton Albion in the English Football League (EFL) Cup on Tuesday for the quarter-finals. Then they will travel to Crystal Palace in the Premier League on Sunday, 3 November for the matchday 11 of the league. Watch out for this team; we are sure it is a sure win in the Carabao Cup quarter Finals.
