Leicester Keeps Huddersfield in the Cellar

For five whole minutes, the club propping up the entire Premiership had visions of passing that indignity to someone else.

Too bad for them there were another 85 minutes to play.

On the bright side, Huddersfield has 32 more matches to do something about it. The signs just don't look all that rosy for a drastic change in their fortunes.

Leicester City, on the other hand, had their own issues. The Foxes had dropped two on the trot, and this 3-1 victory really took the edge off.

Those first minutes scared Leicester’s contingent, though.

In that fateful fifth, Philip Billing fired a throw-in straight into the area where Laurent Depoitre deflected on and Mathias Jørgensen shot home. Kasper Schmeichel got a hand on it, but not enough to save the goal:

 

After that shock, the Foxes seemed to wake up and get their act together.

The transformation only took a quarter hour. Dudes launched a counter attack that found Jamie Vardy, who duly disheed to Kelechi Iheanacho.

He outran faster the Terrier defenders and slotted home to the bottom right corner:

At that point, Huddersfield they still had a point, but the second half turned out to be a minefield for them.

In the 66th minute, when James Maddison put a brilliant and powerful free kick where the sun still shines and where Jonas Lossl had no chance:

 

As every match passes, City's £24million transfer fee to Norwich for Maddison is looking like a bargain. The 21-year-old is a presence no matter where he plays, which in this case was left wing rather than behind the central striker.

Foxes manager Claude Puel's pockets were hot before the season started, and the two-game skid hadn't helped, so he switched to a 4-4-2 for this one. It doesn't seem to have affected Maddison's play a bit.

 

The dagger came in the 83rd minute. Vardy time.

Dude met the ball near the midfield line, sprinted downfield, and looped a pitching wedge over the Danish 'keeper. It was quite a spiffy effort from the former English International:

It's matches like this that offer strong hints in favor of City climbing into contention for a Europa League slot.

Then again, it's opponents like Huddersfield that may be turning those thoughts into false hopes.