Tottenham Hotspur 0-2 Leicester City
- Goals: Jamie Vardy (£10.2m), Toby Alderweireld (£5.4m) own-goal
- Assists: Wesley Fofana (£5.0m)
- Bonus: Vardy x3, Fofana x2, James Justin (£4.9m) x1
Jamie Vardy (£10.2m) made it two double-digit hauls in three Gameweeks as Tottenham slumped to a second defeat in five days.
The Leicester striker scored from the penalty spot, thanks to a VAR-inspired decision involving a Serge Aurier (£5.2m) push on Wesley Fofana (£5.0m) deep into first-half stoppage time.
He then gained an assist after the break when his header went in off Toby Alderweireld (£5.4m) for an own goal.
Up, Up When Away
Leicester made it six wins out of seven away from home this season as Vardy scored his 19th goal in his last 19 Premier League matches on the road.
Up next for the Foxes? Manchester United at home.
But a Gameweek 18 blank is preceded by trips to Crystal Palace and Newcastle United, so the immediate future is still plenty bright enough for the 26.8% who own the striker.
They were treated to an injury scare when he limped off in the 88th minute, but the man himself played that down after the match:
I’m getting older aren’t I?! Just a little tweak, it’s better to come off instead of risking anything. It’s absolutely fine.
His manager, Brendan Rodgers, added:
That’s the same injury but we’ve got a week now which is really nice. We haven’t had too many of them.
It will give him a chance to recover and hopefully he will be okay for next weekend.
Rodgers also acknowledged the lopsided nature of his team’s results:
We have to start winning at home. We miss the fans at home, like every side, but we and I need to look at more solutions to break sides down who defend deeper. I think we looked like a mature side today, which is really pleasing.
Whether he can find some solutions for the United visit remains to be seen.
Backline Boost
Kasper Schmeichel (£5.5m) saved the one big chance Spurs created, which fell to Son Heung-min (£9.7m), but the Foxes generally kept the home side at arm’s length.
Leicester have managed a very respectable five clean sheets this season, and two of them have come in the last three Gameweeks.
Those managers on Schmeichel (10.8%), and in particular James Justin (£4.9m and 22.7%), should be confident of more of the same at Palace, who have blanked in two of their last three home matches.
Spare a thought for the 5.0% of bosses who stayed loyal to Timothy Castagne (£5.7m) – even if many of them are less-than-proud captains of ‘ghost ship teams’.
The Belgium international returned from a seven-match injury lay-off, only to be subbed off four seconds before the magic 60-minute mark, turning six big points into a scraggy one.
Justin, incidentally, was deployed as a right-sided centre-half for the first hour of this encounter, moving over to left wing-back when Castagne was withdrawn.
It’s worth monitoring his attacking numbers over the next few weeks if he stays in the back three but he was still allowed the chance to get forward as a Sheffield United-style overlapping/underlapping centre-back and would have had an assist had it not been for a VAR check overturning a Maddison goal.
Mourinho Not The Merrier
Two straight defeats do not a happy Jose Mourinho make:
It’s a game we lost with a penalty and own goal, but the result looks like the opponent was in control, which is not true. It wasn’t a game they deserved to win or a game we deserved to lose. It was not a good game, it was a poor game.
That was a predictably one-eyed assessment, but Fantasy managers need to stay clear-eyed about Tottenham’s immediate prospects, which remain good.
Their schedule (wol FUL LEE avl shu) is strong, with three away games to suit their counter-attacking style and home fixtures against a much-improved, but still far from impregnable, Fulham defence and a Leeds team that frequently neglects to defend at all.
Spurs seem to be totally reliant on Son and Kane for their attacking output: of the eight attempts the Lilywhites had on Sunday, six came from the pair.
While that’s a concern for Spurs fans, it’s great for owners of the deadly duo, knowing that most of the north Londoners’ offensive play will be funnelled through the talismanic twosome.
Tottenham Hotspur XI (4-4-1-1): Lloris; Aurier (Winks 64), Alderweireld, Dier, Reguilon; Sissoko, Hojbjerg, Lo Celso (Moura 49), Ndombele (Bale 45), Kane, Son.
Leicester City XI (3-4-2-1): Schmeichel; Fofana, Evans, Justin; Castagne (Amartey 60), Ndidi, Albrighton, Tielemans,; Maddison, Barnes (Praet 84); Vardy (Iheanacho 88).
Lessons learned from FPL Gameweek 14
- Crystal Palace 0-7 Liverpool
- Southampton 0-1 Manchester City
- Everton 2-1 Arsenal
- Newcastle United 1-1 Fulham
- Brighton and Hove Albion 1-1 Sheffield United
- Tottenham Hotspur 0-2 Leicester City
- Manchester United 6-2 Leeds United
- West Bromwich Albion 0-3 Aston Villa
- Burnley 2-1 Wolves
- Chelsea 3-0 West Ham United
