Chelsea vs Leicester City. Premier League.
Stamford BridgeAttendance41,552.
Sunday 14 January 2018 14:22, UK
Chelsea failed to win for the fourth match in a row in all competitions as they scraped a 0-0 draw against 10-man Leicester on Saturday.
The Blues had won their previous seven Premier League home matches, but were fortunate not to lose to the Foxes after a lacklustre display.
Shinji Okazaki, Wilfred Ndidi and Riyad Mahrez all went close as the visitors created a number of chances in a dominant opening hour.
Ben Chilwell was sent off for the visitors in the 68th minute for a second yellow card, but Chelsea still created few clear openings and remain without a win in 2018.
Antonio Conte had said before the match that Leicester were the "worst" side for Chelsea to face after a busy recent run of fixtures, and so it proved as the visitors came flying out of the traps and immediately applied pressure.
Okazaki missed the target from eight yards out, Jamie Vardy poked a shot wide and then dragged another across goal before Thibaut Courtois made an excellent diving stop to keep out a header from Ndidi.
Kasper Schmiechel was hardly tested at the other end aside from pushing an effort from Cesc Fabregas away.
And Leicester continued to create chances against a below-par Chelsea, with Mahrez firing over from the penalty spot and Marc Albrighton shooting past the post.
Chelsea lost Gary Cahill to injury and did not improve after half-time as the Foxes controlled possession and went close to the opener with a deflected shot from Mahrez that spun just wide.
The hosts were handed a way into the game when Chilwell was dismissed after two bookings in five minutes, but even then the closest they came was an effort from Tiemoue Bakayoko that went over the bar.
Antonio Conte: "Everyone is frustrated after another 0-0. We played the game against Arsenal on Wednesday night and didn't have a lot of time to recover. I saw many players were very tired and they didn't recover from the Arsenal game. But at the same time I saw great will and desire to win the game."
Claude Puel: "We deserved the point and perhaps more with all the chances we had. In the first half it was crazy not to find the possibility to score...we had a lot of chances without finding the clinical edge."
It was a close call between the excellent Mahrez and Maguire, but the defender shades it for an impressive display, even after his side had been reduced to 10 men.
He looked composed on the ball, showed good strength on several occasions to win possession and kept Morata under wraps throughout. It was the kind of performance that might only serve to increase interest in his services from Manchester City.
Chelsea have a busy upcoming schedule ahead as they host Norwich in an FA Cup replay on Wednesday and then travel to Brighton on Saturday in the Premier League, live on Sky Sports. They then take on Arsenal in the second leg of their Carabao Cup semi-final on January, Wednesday 24, also live on Sky Sports.
Leicester host an FA Cup replay against Fleetwood Town on Tuesday and then welcome Watford to the King Power Stadium on Saturday.
