Manchester City: Citizens Out slugged by Foxes in 4-2 Road Defeat

LEICESTER, ENGLAND – DECEMBER 10: Kevin De Bruyne of Manchester City (L) shoots while Marc Albrighton of Leicester City (R) attempts to block during the Premier League match between Leicester City and Manchester City at the King Power Stadium on December 10, 2016 in Leicester, England. (Photo by Christopher Lee/Getty Images) /

Manchester City fell to a second consecutive defeat in the Barclays Premier League on Saturday after falling to Leicester City 4-2 at the King Power Stadium.

After falling to Chelsea a week ago, Pep Guardiola‘s side needed to gain some important points to stay within the league leaders in the table. Leicester, who have surprised many in the UEFA Champions League, have struggled in the EPL after lifting the title a season ago. Heading into today’s match, the Foxes sat in 16th place only two points ahead of the relegation zone.

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With Nicolas Otamendi, Sergio Aguero, and Fernandinho all missing due to suspension, Guardiola had to rotate some players in today’s starting line-up.

Youngster Kelechi Iheanacho started up top, while Fernando came into the midfield. The back-line featured Alex Kolarov and John Stones, while Bacary Sagna and Pablo Zabaleta were used as the fullbacks.

Jamie Vardy opened the scoring for Leicester three minutes in, as his right-footed effort beat Claudio Bravo to the bottom left corner. Andy King doubled the Foxes lead two minutes later as his right-footed effort found the top left corner. Islam Slimani assisted on both of Leicester’s opening goals. Defensively, Manchester City struggled with the pace of Leicester early and didn’t do a good job of closing down.

After 20 minutes, a defensive breakdown again saw Vardy race behind the back-line and round Bravo for an easy tap-in and a 3-0 Leicester lead. As the first half continued, Leicester continued to press for more goals, while Manchester City looked to actually get some offense going.

However, the first half score-line stood at 3-0 to the hosts who deserved it. Vardy netted his hat-trick goal in the 78th minute as he slid home an effort that went off the left-post and in. A bad back-pass from Stones, allowed Vardy the chance to run on the giveaway. It was Vardy’s first hat-trick for Leicester, and his first overall since 2012 playing for Fleetwood.

Alex Kolarov curled home a free-kick in the 82nd minute to give the visitors a late consolation, before Nolito slide home a left-footed effort off the Serb’s assist in the 90th as another late consolation.

However, the damage had been done in the first half as Leicester rolled their way to an impressive win over Manchester City. The Citizens may have held the advantage in possession 78%-22 but only mustered four shots on goal out of 19 in total. Leicester had six shots on goal which two were saved by Bravo. Ron-Robert Zieler made two saves for the Foxes and wasn’t really troubled until the second half.

Overall, it was a poor performance by the team away from home, which keeps them from advancing up the table. The defending was atrocious and needs to be fixed if Manchester City want to be a true title challenger this season. Following the game, Pep Guardiola told BBC Sport that his team needs to fix their problems inside the box. “Football is a game with mistakes, especially today. I would never complain to my players and I will look inside myself and analyse the reason why we have problems with the second balls when they arrive. Our game is not bad, but in the box we have a lot of problems.”

Going forward, Manchester City need to get some familiarity between their players. They constantly have rotated their players due to injuries, fitness, and suspensions but they need to get consistent play out of their players to be successful. Not being able to keep clean sheets seems to be another problem that could be an Achilles heel down the road.

Next: Nipped by Foxes, Manchester City, Pep has some serious rethinking to do

With a short week, Pep needs to get these players to forget today and move towards the next match. They host Watford at the Etihad on Wednesday, before hosting Arsenal next Sunday. If positive results don’t start coming then City could see themselves slipping down the Premier League table.