Chelsea Claim The Points In The Capital

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Chelsea Claim The Points In The Capital

We were defeated 1-0 by Chelsea on Sunday as the Foxes lost for the fifth successive Premier League fixture.

2025-03-09T16:00+00:00

by Sam Jones

Published

09 Mar, 2025

from Stamford Bridge

Chelsea Claim The Points In The Capital

We were defeated 1-0 by Chelsea on Sunday as the Foxes lost for the fifth successive Premier League fixture.

Sam Jones

2025-03-09T16:00+00:00

Chelsea Claim The Points In The Capital

We were defeated 1-0 by Chelsea on Sunday as the Foxes lost for the fifth successive Premier League fixture.

Sam Jones

2025-03-09T16:00+00:00

Chelsea Claim The Points In The Capital

We were defeated 1-0 by Chelsea on Sunday as the Foxes lost for the fifth successive Premier League fixture.

Sam Jones

2025-03-09T16:00+00:00

Chelsea Claim The Points In The Capital

We were defeated 1-0 by Chelsea on Sunday as the Foxes lost for the fifth successive Premier League fixture.

Sam Jones

2025-03-09T16:00+00:00

A hard-fought battle in the Stamford Bridge sun, Marc Cucurella’s strike on the hour-mark proved to be the difference between the sides after Mads Hermansen had denied Cole Palmer from the penalty spot.

Sitting 19th in the table with 10 games to play, six points adrift of Wolves in 17th, City welcome Manchester United to King Power Stadium next Sunday (7pm GMT kick-off).

A new formation

Ruud van Nistelrooy opted for a change in shape and system for the trip to take on former Leicester Manager Enzo Maresca in west London, with Conor Coady coming into the side as part of a five back, alongside Wout Faes and Luke Thomas – also one of the three personnel changes following defeat at West Ham United.

That allowed James Justin and Victor Kristiansen to act as wing-backs up and down the flanks, with Patson Daka also named in the starting XI, alongside Jamie Vardy up top, adding extra firepower in the attacking third of the pitch.

It did pay off in the first half to some extent; Bilal El Khannouss - the scorer of City’s last Premier League goal, at Tottenham Hotspur in January - testing Robert Sánchez early on after Justin’s cross deflected into his path.

And again, a Justin cross caused carnage in the Blues’ box, the Chelsea ‘keeper coming flying out to try and claim but, with the goal gaping, Tosin sent the ball crashing against his own crossbar before Levi Colwill just managed to get there and nod away, preventing Vardy from heading into an empty net.

Mads steps up

Inside the opening minute there had been brief panic when Cole Palmer went down under Thomas’ challenge, getting the wrong side of the defender, but referee Tim Robinson was unmoved despite the protestations from a number of Chelsea players. VAR did not feel the need to get involved, either.

Then, on 19 minutes, another penalty claim was this time given, as Kristiansen was adjudged to have stamped on Jadon Sancho’s foot, leading to the England international hitting the deck after turning back from the byline.

Up stepped Palmer to take the resulting spot-kick, having scored all of his previous 12 in the Premier League, but he was faced by a determined Hermansen, who got down to his left and saved brilliantly, palming the ball out before being mobbed by his team-mates.

The Dane had a bit more to do ahead of the interval, too, first saving Moises Caicedo’s strike, before tipping Christopher Nkunku’s effort over the top of the bar, ensuing we went in all square at the break, though the breakthrough would come.

The turning point

The second half had started with more promise for van Nistelrooy’s side; Vardy latching on to Justin’s header and forcing Sánchez to tip his strike from a tight angle over the top of the bar as the Foxes looked to be growing in confidence.

It was soon end to end action, with Neto’s shot deflecting wide at the other end, prior to another penalty claim being soon waved away when the Portuguese forward went down under close attention from Justin.

We waited until the hour mark for the deadlock to be broken and it came out of nothing. Cucurella, allowed time and space, sent a low shot skidding into the far corner, beating Hermansen and ending hopes of a first away clean sheet of the season.

Harry Winks and Facundo Buonanotte were soon introduced, as were Bobby De Cordova-Reid, Stephy Mavididi and Ricardo Pereira – the latter making his first appearance since 2 November - in the hope of finding an equaliser, and the full-back did make an impact, letting fly from distance, though was unable to beat Sánchez and we left the Bridge empty handed.

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