Leicester City put on a brave show at Stamford Bridge this afternoon, eventually losing 5-2 to their big spending Premier League opponents. The Foxes never recovered from conceding two goals in the opening 20 minutes and, when Torres added a third in the 67th minute, Leicester could have been facing a rout. To their credit, City persevered and were rewarded with two late goals. Danns, who was comfortably Leicester's best player, ran at the Chelsea defence and fired against the post. Beckford was alert to smash home the reboud. Ben Marshall doubled Leicester's tally with 12 minutes remaining on the clock, scoring a 30 yard thunderbolt into the top corner, a goal that any of Chelsea's stars would have been delighted to score. Unfortunately, Torres second of the game was sandwiched between these two Leicester goals and kept Chelsea's two goal cushion. This prevented City from putting their hosts under any real, sustained pressure.
You only had to examine the substitutes bench to see the gulf in class between the two squads. On Chelsea's bench; Drogba, Malouda, Lampard, Essien, Ferreira, Luis and Hilario. Leicester's bench was made up of; Smith, Peltier, Kennedy, Schlupp, Hopper, Howard and Marshall. In Championship terms, Leicester have spent big money this season. By Chelsea's standards, the Thai investment looks like a drop in the blue ocean. Leicester's owners will have to open a few more Duty Free outlets before they can dream about Leicester City competing in the Premiership. The big question now is, if Leicester fail to reach the play-offs this season, will the Thais have the stomach to keep pouring their cash into a bottomless pit. Furthermore, will they continue to trust Pearson as the man to fulfill their ambition...
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