Spirited City Beaten By Everton

Craig Shakespeare, who made five changes to the side that beat Sunderland on Tuesday, tasted defeat as City manager for the first time, despite watching his outfit take a 2-1 lead early on in Liverpool. 

The first half was frantic and yielded five goals, with the opener coming after just 30 seconds. Kevin Mirallas burst through midfield and teed up Tom Davies, who fired in to give Everton an early lead. 

But the Foxes were behind for just three minutes as Islam Slimani rounded off a swift counter-attack to score his first away goal for the Club – Demarai Gray the man assisting the Algeria international striker. 

Just six minutes later, City went ahead through Marc Albrighton, whose free kick from the left flank caught Joel Robles unawares and flew into the top corner on the 10-minute mark. 

Gray was unfortunate not to extend the Foxes lead when he saw a low strike turned away by the legs of Robles and that save proved to be vitally important as Romelu Lukaku nodded in Ross Barkley’s pin-point cross for the leveller midway through the opening 45 minutes. 

Lukaku’s goal buoyed the Toffees and soon after they went in front for a second time. Mirallas’ corner was met by Phil Jagielka, who got up well to head home with just four minutes of the first half to play. 

Leicester started the second period well as Slimani struck the side-netting with a deflected effort, but Lukaku pounced again just before the half-hour mark to double the Everton advantage. 

Shakespeare’s side enjoyed spells of possession after Lukaku’s second and the introduction of Ahmed Musa, Riyad Mahrez and Leonardo Ulloa provided fresh legs going forward. 

It was Ulloa who came agonisingly close to scoring just seconds after coming on, but his header was blocked by Idrissa Gueye, while Robles was equal to another effort from the Argentine late on to halt a second City resurgence.

Major moment 

Momentum has no doubt been with the Foxes in recent weeks but it was Everton’s bouncebackability that proved to be their downfall on Merseyside. Despite already recovering from a one-goal deficit thanks to efforts from Islam Slimani and Marc Albrighton, Craig Shakespeare’s men couldn’t complete that feat for a second time. 

Romelu Lukaku’s first goal got the Toffees back on level terms but it was Phil Jagielka’s header that gave the hosts a huge boost in confidence - scoring right at the end of the first period changed the whole complexion of the game. 

Who impressed? 

With the Foxes contesting three games in the space of seven days, Craig Shakespeare provided a number of players with the chance to notch up some valuable game time. Having already completed 90 minutes on two occasions against Everton this term, left back Ben Chilwell was again presented with the task of defending against the Toffees’ fearsome attacking line on Sunday. 

Chilwell performed well and often stood up to the advances of Romelu Lukaku, Kevin Mirallas and Ross Barkley, while he also wasn’t afraid to venture forward when called upon. 

Where do we stand? 

A first defeat in six Premier League outings means City remain 11th in the table, just one point off 10th-placed Watford. The league’s bottom three teams all failed to win this weekend and therefore the gap to the drop zone stays at a healthy eight points with seven games to play. 

Coming up… 

The Foxes next contest the first leg of their UEFA Champions League Quarter-Final tie against Atlético Madrid. They head to the Vicente Calderon Stadium on Wednesday, before resuming their Premier League campaign at Crystal Palace just three days later.