Chelsea-2 Leicester-1
Maresca con firms Chelsea captain James has hamstring injury Enzo Maresca has announced that captain Reece James will miss this weekend's match against Leicester City.
From Reuters Updated: 23 November 2024, 9:42pm Goals from Nicholas Jackson and Enzo Fernandes gave Chelsea a 2-1 win over Leicester City in the Premier League on Saturday and moved them up to third in the table.
Chelsea dominated the home side for much of the game, but a lackluster performance in front of goal nearly cost them their life in the closing stages, when Leicester pulled one back from the penalty spot by Jordan Ayew in what became a nervy final few minutes.
After drawing with Manchester United and Arsenal before the international break, Chelsea came from nowhere and Jackson punished Leicester for not being clear in front of their own half in the 15th minute.
The visitors won a long goal kick from Leicester and quickly began to push up the pitch before Fernandes found Jackson, who received the ball and fired a shot past Mads Hermansen with the outside of his right boot.
Chelsea continued to dominate and should have gone two up in the 54th minute, but Madueke got ahead and couldn't keep Palmer's close-range shot from heading into the empty goal, sending the shot wide.
Chelsea captain Fernandes was not shy with his first goal for the club in the 75th minute, reacting quickest after Hermansen parried Jackson's shot and headed in the rebound, but the Foxes refused to give up.
Substitute Bobby de Cordova-Reid threw a lifeline when he was fouled in the penalty area in added time, leading to a late attack for the home side as Ayew nearly slotted the penalty past Hermansen.
But a late attack was too late and Chelsea clinched the win to extend their lead to 22 points. Leicester are in 16th place with 10 points. "We played well and won the game, that's the most important thing.
The job is done, we got the three points," said defender Wesley Fofana, who moved from Leicester to Chelsea in 2022. "We like the pressure and we're going to play through it and try to finish at the top.
We're going to try to win every game to stay in the top spot. I've had two great years here and it feels great to be back here." Leicester manager Steve Cooper said he was disappointed with some of the refereeing decisions but also took some positives from the game. "Defensively we were generally OK.
We have to show courage and belief. If we do that we can create chances and be dangerous," he said.
