Brighton and Hove Albion 0 Leicester City 2
Albion snatched a defeat from the jaws of at least a draw as two errors from attacking positions led to Leicester scoring two breakaway goals.
Albion struggled in the first few minutes and as Solly March “left” a cross, Ayoze Perez headed against the crossbar.
Soon after James Maddison shot wide. In fact within the first five minutes Perez had another effort and Leicester battered the Seagulls.
Ben Chilwell was finding a lot of space down the right for Leicester. One of his whipped in crosses gave Jamie Vardy his first chance of the afternoon, but Ryan was equal to it.
Albion tried to find an outlet in March who was playing in Trossard’s favoured position, with the Belgian playing behind Neal Maupay in Aaron Connolly’s absence.
Kasper Schmeichel didn’t touch the ball until 23 minutes had elapsed.
Shane Duffy looked rattled at times and frequently kicked the ball out of play.
It was Duffy who had Albion’s best chance of the first half from an Aaron Mooy corner, but his header was high and wide.
Albion really should have capitalised on their early second-half possession.
March was now causing Chilwell and Johnny Evans problems but he couldn’t get the ball in the box and neither Maupay nor Trossard could captilise.
From a Mooy corner Stephens tried to tee up Propper but Vardy intercepted. He was thwarted by the Albion defence and Ryan.
The same scenario occurred soon after, with the ball falling to Stephens from an Albion corner. Stephens tried to sidefoot the ball in towards Propper. This time Vardy raced away, slotting the ball to Perez who fired past Ryan to put Leicester in front.
Albion didn’t learn. A few minutes later Dan Burn gave the ball away and again Vardy raced clear and this time found Demari Gray who looked to have received a small shove from Webster. Referee Mike Dean gave a penalty.
Vardy took the spot kick. Ryan saved brilliantly to his left, but James Maddison reacted first and headed the ball in.
VAR then took centre stage. The replay showed that several players had encroached. Yves Bissouma, just on as a substitute for Stephens, was almost in the six-yard box as the kick was taken.
Dean ordered a retake and Vardy scored to double the Foxes’ lead.
Towards the end Duffy and Maupay got tangled up and Duffy wasn’t able to direct his header towards goal.
Ryan thwarted Vardy again, but Albion failed to register a shot on target and Schmeichel was virtually untroubled.
It never gets easier in the Premier League as the Seagulls travel to Anfield next Saturday (30 November) to take on the champions-elect, Liverpool.
were u at the game? difficult conditions with the rain but a fair result. Brighton lacked a cutting edge and were poor defensively – leicester were nothing special so a very disappointing result
There’s nothing I hate more than when the Albion lose a game (apart from women’s knickers, broccoli, doctors who force me to take my medication, and Esther Rantzen)