Chelsea's dominance soars above Leicester as they secure victory

LONDON – Enzo Maresca, the manager of Chelsea, expressed his confidence in his team's ability to compete at the highest level, following their narrow 2-1 victory against Leicester City on his return to the King Power Stadium on Nov 23. Despite a late rally from Leicester, the Chelsea Blues managed to secure a crucial win.

The visitors, finding their groove after the international break, hogged the ball from the kick-off and Nicolas Jackson gave them a deserved early lead in the English Premier League clash.

But they failed to make the most of their superiority until 15 minutes from time, when Enzo Fernandez scored to make it 2-0, before surviving a nervy few minutes. Jordan Ayew pulled a goal back for the home side from the spot in stoppage time.

“It’s after the international break, so it’s always a tricky game and you’ll never know,” said Maresca. “I was quite worried today, but I think we competed, we played well for some moment and at the end we won.

“Today we just tried to suppress them (Leicester) because the players... they know me and the way we played last year. So I changed some things around today. But we had only two days (after the international break) to prepare and I think we prepared quite well.

“I told the guys before the game that today we have the chance to make a statement, to show that we are there.”

The Italian added of his return to Leicester: “I am very thankful to them because I found top people at the club... the chairman, who takes care of everyone, they are fantastic.”

Chelsea’s win, which came after two league draws, lifts them to 22 points and puts them in a chase for at least the top three.

It was Maresca’s first game at the King Power since he took Leicester back to the Premier League last season in his only campaign at the club.

The Blues zipped the ball around with confidence in the opening stages on a soggy afternoon in the Midlands.

Joao Felix, making his first Premier League start of the season, fired wide in the 13th minute and then a minute later volleyed over from just outside the box.

But moments later, Chelsea got the goal they deserved when Jackson won his tussle with Leicester defender Wout Faes, who missed a number of chances to clear.

The ball fell to Fernandez, who found Jackson and the Senegal forward poked home with the outside of his right foot for his seventh league goal of the season.

Leicester goalkeeper Mads Hermansen kept out Noni Madueke’s sharp effort and Madueke had a goal disallowed for a tight offside against Marc Cucurella just after the half hour.

But as the first period wore on there was a momentum shift and Leicester suddenly started looking more dangerous.

Steve Cooper’s men broke at pace and Oliver Skipp found Kasey McAteer on the right. McAteer, making his full Premier League debut, cut inside but steered his shot just beyond the far post.

Chelsea looked certain to double their lead 10 minutes after the restart but somehow contrived to squander the chance, when Madueke got in the way of a Cole Palmer shot on the goalline.

They did find the net in the 75th minute when Fernandez headed home after Hermansen kept out Jackson’s header.

Foxes substitute Ayew pulled a goal back but it was too little, too late.

Leicester, the 2016 Premier League champions, are now hovering above the relegation zone.

“Tough first half in terms of Chelsea territory and dominance with the ball,” said Cooper. “We gave away a poor goal. It should have been 0-0. We had two good chances ourselves in the first half.

“Defensively we were generally OK. We need to be showing good courage and belief. If we do that, we can create chances and be a threat. We’ll always be disappointed with the goals we conceded.” AFP