Jackson and Enzo score to secure three vital points on the road as Chelsea beat Leicester 2-1

By Paul Lagan at King Power Stadium

Leicester City 1 v Chelsea 2

Goals from Nicolas Jackson and Enzo, one in each half saw Chelsea retain third place in the Premier League with deserved 2-1 away to Leicester City.

A late, late penalty by Jordan Ayew was the best it got for them.

The Foxes are a shadow of their league winning selves, and are rightly struggling at the wrong end of the league.

Chelsea did not need to get out of second gear to secure all three points.

The game won't last long in the memory banks, such was the paucity of goal-scoring chances and general poor technical level and serious on-field ambition.

Chelsea started brightly, while Leicester ere content to sit back and ab sorb and pressure, while all the time looking for the quick breakaway to allow Jamie Vardy to pump in to action .

But the home side were forced I to an early substitution, ex-Spurs Harry Winks limped off to be replaced by ex-Spurs Oliver Skipp on 11 minutes.

Joao Felix had a couple of volleys, the first well wide, the second just inches over the Leicester crossbar.

Seconds later, on 16 minutes, then visitors took a deserved lead.

Wout Faes and Caleb Okoli failed to deal with in -running Nicolas Jackson as they battled for the ball. Jackson came out on top and from eight yards, clipped a smart angled right-footer past Mads Hermansen

Noni was on the end of a quick break by the Blues and cured a lovely left-footer, which Hermansen did well to parry away for a corner on 30 minutes.

But he thought he had side-footed home three minutes later, but set-up man Marc Cucurella was deemed offside rightly by VAR

Leicester broke quickly on 38 minutes, cutting the Blues defence apart. Skipp's ball to in-running Victor Kristiansen was perfect but his execution of a left-footed curling daisy-cutter was just off and the ball inched wide of Robert Sanchez's right post.

They followed it up with another fine chance but Wilfred Ndidi's effort was weak and wide.

There were no changes by either side at half-time.

Chelsea should have scored on 54 minutes when another quick break saw a Jackson shot parried away by Hermansen, but Cole Palmer's follow-up shot, on target at the far post smacked off the legs of Noni who was in the way and the ball went for a goal kick.

Chelsea, while not as dominate as the first half, still showed a greater cutting edge in the second, and with 15 minutes left they scored their second.

A simple clipped ball into the penalty area on the left by Cucurella, saw Jackson get ahead of his defender and nod the ball towards goal. Hermansen could only punch the ball directly to Enzo who headed home from close range into the empty net.

Enzo Maresca decided to make his first substitutions – bring on Christopher Nkunku and Romeo Lavia for Felix and Moises Caicedo on 81 minutes.

Jadon Sancho was soon on the pitch replacing, Noni.

VAR denied Leicester a penalty, agreeing with referee Andrew Madley that Wesley Fofana did not foul Stephy Mavididi in the penalty area.

Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall got a good reception from his former club's fans when he made a late entrance to the pitch at the expense of Jackson.

Another late VAR call for a penalty suggested that Lavia committed a foul. Up stepped in the 95tyh minute substitute Jordan Ayew who slotted home past Sanchez.

Could the Foxes rally to score again?

No.

Teams: Chelsea: Sanchez, Cucurella, Badiashile, Colwill, Enzo, Noni, Felix, Jackson, Palmer, Caicedo, Fofana

Subs: Tosin, Mudryk, Jorgensen, Bettinelli, Nkunku, Sancho, Dewsbury-Hall, Veiga, Lavia

Leicester City: Hermansen, Justin, Faes, Okoli, Ndidi, Winks, Vardy, Khannouss, Kristiansen, Soumare, McAteer

Subs: Ward, Coady, Mavididi

De Cordova-Reid, Choudhury, Ayew, Daka, Skipp, Thomas

Referee: Andrew Madley