Chelsea’s momentum was halted by another resoundingly subdued performance at home to Claude Puel’s Leicester City side, who thrived off of the deep-lying counter-attacking style they were made to adopt because of Maurizio Sarri’s possession-based tactics – scoring against the run of play through Jamie Vardy in the second-half.
Pedro and David Luiz missed good early chances to give Chelsea the lead before Eden Hazard saw his shot hit the bar after capitalising on a defensive error by Harry Maguire. For all Chelsea’s domination, enjoying 72% possession they, as has been the case so many times this season, were unable to break their opponents down.
After half-time Chelsea continued to search for the opening goal, but again it alluded them, and this time they were ruefully punished by the arch nemesis of the top six Jamie Vardy, who collected a James Maddison pass to fire beyond Kepa Arrizabalaga and stun the Chelsea faithful into silence.
Hazard continued to drive Chelsea forward, drawing saves from Kasper Schmeichel whilst Antonio Rudiger and Marcos Alonso came closest to rescuing a point but to no avail as Chelsea slipped up once more in the hunt for a Champions League spot.
