Leicester City (Home) 13.05.2018

A free-kick conceded by Kyle Walker-Peters for a foul on Demarai Gray on the Leicester left wing was whipped in to the near post and Vardy got his head to the ball at the near post to glance it into the net on the far side of the goal to give Leicester the lead in the fourth minute.  However, Spurs were soon level, with Simpson’s intended pass was blocked by Lucas Moura inside the Foxes half and the ball ran forward to Harry Kane, who ran it into the box and finished unerringly with a left foot shot past Jakupovic’s dive to his right at his near post.  It was Harry’s 40th goal of the season with this being his 29th in the league. 

Walker-Peters found some space on the right and played a low ball into the six yard box, but Maguire hoofed the ball away for a corner, which dropped in the goalmouth and Maguire managed to shepherd it back to the goalkeeper.  Toby Alderweireld had stayed up-field for a free-kick and struck an effort at goal from the edge of the box, but the ball went straight at the goalkeeper stood centrally in his goal.  It was Leicester who regained the lead in the 16th minute, when Victor Wanyama was dispossessed out to the left 30 yards from goal and when it went into the penalty area, Walker-Peters got there ahead of Vardy who would have had a clear shot on goal, but the ball ran to Mahrez, who fired it left-footed past Lloris from 15 yards out, as the keeper dived to his right.

When Walker-Peters’ cross was headed behind by Simpson with Danny Rose looking to steal in behind him, the corner was played into the near post where Dier met it with his head and Jakupovic had to beat the ball away, but Spurs retained possession and Moura hit a shot that a deflection took narrowly wide, but the referee gave a goal-kick.  Lloris made an excellent save when Iheanacho played a ball in from halfway inside the Spurs half from the left and Vardy laid it into Gray’s path.  His shot from 12 yards out and left of centre was brilliantly pushed over the bar as Hugo flung out his left hand to keep the ball out, when it looked easier for the Foxes winger to score.

With 38 minutes gone Christian Eriksen put an excellent ball into the six yard box from the left wing, Erik Lamela couldn’t quite reach it at the near post and the ball was palmed away by the keeper diving to his left onto Kane, but the ball ran away from him a few yards out and a defender smuggled it behind for a corner.

When the second half started, Eriksen had a shot blocked on the edge of the Leicester area by Simpson and when the visitors cleared the ball forward, Dier’s defensive header was picked up by Iheanacho 45 yards from goal, he shrugged off Wanyama’s challenge and from 25 yards out, hit a shot from a central position that flew past Lloris and into the top left corner of the keeper’s goal. 

At 1-3 behind, Spurs needed to respond quickly and that is just what they did.  From the kick off the ball was passed back to Lloris who launched it up-field.  The ball was worked from the left wing into the middle for Kane, who passed it onto his right to Moura, who did the same for Walker-Peters to slide a low ball across the six-yard area and Erik Lamela drifted in unmarked to side-foot the ball into the net from a couple of yards our right in the middle of the goal.  The two-touch passing and then the first time cross split through the Leicester defence with ease.

Leicester’s indecision was clear to see and was exemplified ten minutes into the second half when they took ages to take a throw-in and when they finally did they threw it straight off the pitch for a Spurs goal-kick.  It proved costly, as Lloris’ long clearance was nodded on by Moura for Danny Rose, who returned the ball to the Brazilian in the box with his back to goal.  Quick thinking, he back-heeled the ball behind him to Lamela and his shot was deflected wide of Jakupovic by Christian Fuchs and inside the keeper’s left hand post to level the score at 3-3.  Under pressure, Lamela’s shot was going well wide, until the Foxes defender stuck out his knee to out the ball into the net.

Maguire hit a shot into the side-netting when the ball came back in after it had been headed out to the left of the box and the defender should really have done better with his effort.  Following a long throw from Fuchs at the Spurs end, the ball was passed up to Harry Kane just inside the Tottenham half.  He passed it back to Lucas Moura, whose ball out to the right wing was knocked on by Gray, who tried to chest the ball but only allowed it to run through to Walker-Peters.  His first time pass across into the middle found Lamela free as Morgan could not keep up with him and that allowed him to bury a side-foot with his left from the six-yard line past Jakupovic’s dive to his right into the bottom corner.  It was a dramatic turnaround for Spurs to come from behind to go 4-3 up in the space of 12 second half minutes.  As for Gray, it was the end of his match, being unceremoniously hooked off, which is what the manager wanted to do before the throw-in was taken, but his indecision cost Leicester the goal.

Immediately from the kick off, Christian Eriksen put Walker-Peters away on the right in acres of space and his ball across found Danny Rose at the far side of the box, with the ball played straight back in, but cut out before it could reach Moura.  Hugo Lloris was back in action with a low save from an Iheanacho shot that he grabbed at the second attempt, then a Spurs free-kick to the left of the Leicester area was whipped in to the near post by Eriksen and Toby Alderweireld flicked it on and then the ball dropped back to him off a defender, which he turned on to shoot to the near post but only found the side-netting.  Hugo was then sharp to get down to a shot from Mahrez in the box to the right of the goal, Eriksen worked a short corner with Moura and came inside to hit a shot wide of the near post which was followed by Danny Rose’s run into the penalty area being brought to a halt by Silva’s ridiculous challenge that ended up with him facing the other way and falling onto the Spurs man, as his arm caught Rose’s right foot.  Pawson didn’t see anything wrong with it and gave a goal kick !   Equally as ridiculous.

Harry Kane got the ball in the box and as he tried to turn Morgan, the defender blocked him off with no intent to play the ball with the ref again giving no decision to Tottenham, but waving play on and that led to a Leicester equaliser.  The ball was moved through the Spurs half by Mahrez’s run and he slipped a pass through to Vardy in the left hand channel, who looked offside, but fired the ball left-footed into the near top corner to make it 4-4. 

The crowd were deflated by the leveller that put Liverpool back into third place in the league table on goal difference and Spurs had to find another goal from somewhere … and they found it from Harry Kane.  Spurs had passed the ball around just inside their own half until Alderweireld put the ball forward , but for Lamela to turn it inside, Dele Alli, just on as a sub, flicked it further on for Kane running onto it to his left.  He swapped passes with Rose and shaped to shoot from just outside the area, with Choudhury buying it, as Harry chopped inside, opened up his body and curled a beautiful shot between Morgan and Maguire and to the left of the keeper to plant it inside the far post to give Tottenham a one goal advantage again.  It was a goal that we had seen Harry score many times and the result of hard work on the training ground paid off once more.

Leicester sought to get back un the game straightaway the way that Tottenham had and a long throw went through the goalmouth to Iheanacho, whose shot was partially blocked by Rose and bobbled up and hit Lloris in the chest before being hacked away by Eriksen.  With 12 minutes remaining, Mauricio Pochettino looked to see out the game by bringing on Davinson Sanchez for Lamela, with the defender not originally having been in the Spurs squad, having to be added to the subs bench to cover for Vertonghen’s injury.

A cross-field pass saw Danny Rose take it on his chest to go past Choudhury, who pulled him over only just outside the box.  What the difference between this foul and the earlier challenge by Silva on Rose was – apart from the first one being in the box – it was hard for anyone other than the referee to explain.  With the free-kick placed three yards in form the left hand corner of the box, Harry Kane lined it up but got underneath it to send it over the bar.  Rose was tormenting Choudhury and twisted and turned him before nut-megging him in the box and his ball across was uncharacteristically totally missed by Kane in the middle of the penalty area.  Then he started on Silva in midfield and when he got fouled by the Leicester midfielder, Silva went ballistic when a foul was given against him, earning him a booking.  Vardy then threw Sanchez to the floor off the ball and only received a talking to and a free-kick given against him, when perhaps more disciplinary action should have been imposed.

Into added time a ball into the box for Diabate caused Hugo to rush off his line the whack the ball away before the Leicester man got to it and then the same player went down in the area under pressure from Walker-Peters, but it was more like Diabate had contact in Walker-Peters than the other way around.  Kyle suffered some pain as he was fallen on with his left arm under the Foxes player.  

In the last minute of added time, Maguire had been pushed forward and he headed the ball on for Vardy to fire over the top from the same place he scored Leicester’s fourth goal from and that was the last action save for Silva having a late kick at Dele when Spurs were holding the ball down in the Leicester corner of the pitch, which Dele returned.

• This was Tottenham’s 1,000th match in the Premier League and their 500th home match.
• Harry Kane’s 40th goal of the season made him the first Spurs player to score 40 goals or more in a season in all competitions since Clive Allen in 1986-87 (49).
• It was the first time Harry Kane reached the mark of 30 Premier League goals in a season.
• Tottenham’s third place finish meant that the club had finished in the top three of the top division in three consecutive seasons for the first time since 1963.
• Nine goals equalled the highest total for a competitive match at Wembley (Manchester City 5 Chelsea 4 in the Full Members Cup Final of 1986).