By Ben Sanderson
It took the worst defence in the league for Leicester City to finally break through, but the Foxes are back among the goals.
Aston Villa, the team ranked bottom of the league for goals conceded, shots faced and defensive errors, were thumped 4-0 at the King Power Stadium.
Harvey Barnes and Jamie Vardy, who ended a 9-game goal drought tonight, bagged a brace each as the Foxes secured their first league win since January.
They should have made it even more too, as the first half saw fabulous chances for City wasted.
In the tenth minute, Jonny Evans should have scored as he took advantage of Villa’s poor man-marking to run into the near post, but he headed straight at Pepe Reina, who parried away.
Kelechi Iheanacho once again missed a glaring chance, heading wide from a Ricardo Pereira cross when all he had to do was guide it in a little.
An error from Reina eventually allowed the Foxes to get an opener, as the Spaniard came off his line too early and was made light work of by Barnes as he rounded the ‘keeper to finish.
Vardy was substituted on in the 59th minute, and four minutes later he was on the scoresheet.
Tyrone Mings dived to head away a Barnes cross which catastrophically hit his shoulder and referee Michael Oliver had no hesitation in pointing to the spot.
Vardy shot low into the right-hand side of the goal, sending Reina the wrong way, to end a long goal drought and reclaim his place at the top of the Premier League’s scoring charts.
Vardy made it three, dribbling in along the left side of the pitch and having a cross blocked by Frédéric Guilbert, before slotting home low inside the near post.
A lovely Leicester move completed the rout, as James Maddison’s pass to Youri Tielemans was fed through by the Belgian to Marc Albrighton, whose cross made it to Barnes, who chipped in to the middle of the goal as Reina dived low.
Maddison shot narrowly over from long range and Albrighton did the same from closer in as he missed the opportunity to make it five against his former club.
Leicester were in control of most of the game as they finally won a game and made the most of their chances after a couple of early errors.
The main worry for the Foxes is going to be keeping up this form, and hoping that Vardy can stay on form like he was in tonight.
