Rodgers breaks down how Leicester were able to ‘nullify’ Chelsea threat

Leicester manager Brendan Rodgers picked out a “sensational” Foxes star for special praise, and detailed how his side were able to blunt Chelsea’s limited attacks.

Leicester ascended to the top of the table at least until Man City’s clash with Aston Villa on Wednesday night.

Producing a dominating display, the Foxes took an early lead through Wilfred Ndidi and never looked back.

James Maddison starred after notching the second, but he was just one of a number of Leicester players who put in an elite performance on the night.

FULL MATCH REPORT: High-flying Leicester go top after handing woeful Chelsea painful defeat

Speaking to Sky Sports after the match, Rodgers said: “Very good performance, they’re [Chelsea] a talented team with individual quality but as a team we were excellent.

“Great attacking threat in the first period, Harvey Barnes was sensational, really exciting. We were very good.

Harvey Barnes has been directly involved in five goals in his last six games in all competitions.

◉ 4 goals
◉ 1 assist

Even when he completely miss-hits his shot he manages to get an assist. 😅 pic.twitter.com/4crDVZW5su

— Squawka Football (@Squawka) January 19, 2021

“Last 15 or 20 minutes of the first half our shape allowed them to play through the bodies so they started to get some combinations on the edge of the box so we changed our defensive shape in the second half and that nullified a lot of their threat.

“We looked very dangerous in the game. Two very good goals. We really deserved it.

“My satisfaction is seeing the relationship from training into the game and the players have won a lot of games against the big teams this season. You see the maturity in the performance as well – that’s a pleasing aspect.

“Tonight was a good professional performance and we had some really good moments of football.”

Maddison talks Leicester title chances

The red-hot Maddison also spoke to the press, telling Sky Sports: “Sounds nice to say we’re top of the league – probably for about 24 hours but it’s a good one psychologically because we’ve worked really hard it’s a great achievement for us and I don’t think you’ll see a better team performance from us this season.

“It had a bit of everything, bit of tactical nous, I thought we were brilliant today. Credit to the manager as well we switched to a 4-4-2 out of possession and just little things like that helped and we deserved the three points.

“You don’t play for Brendan Rodgers if you don’t do dirty work – he always reiterates that is a running game you can’t have passengers or carry anyone in this league.

“If we want to stay up there for the rest of the season there might be teams that can spend more money than us but that team spirit will keep building to try and keep us up there.”

Regarding Leicester’s status as title challengers, Maddison added: “You can get sidetracked, we are top at the minute because we don’t think like that.

“The most important game is the next game, as cliche as it is that’s how we have to work because we have that mentality.

“We’re at the top of the league because we work hard we’re not there by fluke. We’ll do our business in the background, let them talk about Liverpool, Man United and Spurs, we’ll just keep doing what we’re doing.”