Pedro on the scoresheet as the blues steamroll the defending champs
Internet Desk: In the duel of the current leader against the current champion of the Premier League Championship, It was a better day for Conte’s men. Chelsea went to King Power Stadium and beat Leicester City 3-0 on Saturday for the 21st round. Left-back Marcos Alonso scored the first two goals of the match, while Pedro closed the account on 71st minute.
With the result, the Blues go to 52 points and put pressure on Liverpool and Manchester City, who have 44 and 42 points, respectively, and will enter the field on Sunday. At the moment, the main competitors of the team led by Antonio Conte are Tottenham (45) and Arsenal (44), who won their matches on Saturday and appear in second and third place respectively.
Leicester, however, is only 15th in the standings with 21 points, five more than Hull City, the first team in the relegation zone.
For the next round of the English Championship, Chelsea will host Hull City at Stamford Bridge next Sunday at 14:30 (GMT). On the same day, Leicester City will visit Southampton at St. Mary’s at 10am.
As had already informed a British newspaper on Friday, Diego Costa was not related to the game.According to the publication, the striker was cut because of a mess with coach Conte.
The Brazilian with Spanish nationality claimed to have a problem in the back, but the medical department of Chelsea did not find any problem. The coach, on the other hand, preferred to rely on the club’s professionals instead of supporting the athlete’s complaints. The problem in the back, by the way, was the motive claimed by the club in his Twitter account, just before the game, to justify the absence of the jersey 19.
The match was still marked by honors. Before the ball rolled, there was one minute of applause for Graham Taylor, who was coach of Aston Villa, Watford, among other teams, and died on Thursday at the age of 72.
In addition, at 10min, fans gave a symbolic gesture with cell phone lights to Alan Birchenall, a legend from Leicester and a former Chelsea player who suffered a cardiac arrest this week. The 71-year-old former athlete is in stable condition.
Without Diego Costa on the pitch, the visiting team had a rather unusual protagonist in the offensive sector. In the middle of a game that was balanced for a good part, the visitors sent the triumph thanks to goals at 6min of each of the times.
In the initial stage, there was a rebound in the area after lifting right, Hazard straightened and Marcos Alonso stoked the net. Already in the lap of the interval, the Spaniard used leftovers in the entrance of the area and saw his finalization deflected in Morgan, deceiving Schmeichel and dying in the bottom of the target.
Marcos Alonso became the third defender of the club to achieve two goals in the same game in the Prermier League. Branislav Ivanovic and John Terry are the others. In addition, it was the first time he achieved such a brand as a professional player.
The side almost reached the hat-trick in the 19th minute with a beautiful first-half finish that came close to Schmeichel’s left-footed strike.
It would not be for Marcos Alonso, but the third goal of the visitors would still come. At 26min, Chelsea made a nice collective move amid a down and passive defense, which ended with a header from Pedro after Williams’s pass deflected by Schmeichel.