Jamie Vardy scored twice as Leicester City thrashed Aston Villa to make it a club-record eight Premier League wins in a row and keep alive their hopes of catching leaders Liverpool.

Brendan Rodgers’ side reduced the deficit on top spot to eight points once more with a clinical display at Villa Park, in which former England striker Vardy netted for the eighth successive match.

Vardy linked up with Kelechi Iheanacho to open the scoring after 20 minutes, skipping round Villa keeper Tom Heaton and finishing at the second attempt.

Iheanacho added the Foxes’ second from close range as the visitors looked to have taken control before the break, only for Villa captain Jack Grealish to whip an effort into the bottom corner on the stroke of half-time.

The hosts’ comeback was short lived, however, with Jonny Evans heading in from a corner shortly after the interval.

Vardy then dashed clear with 15 minutes remaining to slide an effort beyond Heaton and put the game out of Villa’s reach.

Leicester remain second in the top flight, but now have a six-point advantage over Manchester City after Pep Guardiola’s side were beaten by Manchester United on Saturday.

Foxes make it eight on the bounce

The last time Leicester City visited Villa Park they were en route to the most remarkable of Premier League triumphs, while the hosts were heading towards the Championship.

Four seasons on and, while no bookmaker will give you odds of 5,000-1, a repeat of those league-winning heroics would seem almost as unlikely, despite their lofty position.

Liverpool’s dominance means any talk of Leicester’s name being etched on the trophy again has been little more than a whisper, but is it time to start shouting about the Foxes’ chances?

This victory means Rodgers’ side have now won more top-flight games in a row than at any time in their history and have more points at this stage of the season than when Leicester won the league.

In fact, in 15 of the past 27 Premier League seasons they would be sitting top of the table after 16 games with such a tally.

Rodgers, who signed a new contract this week, is leading a side in ruthless form.

Vardy pounced for his first after a neat ball from Iheanacho, making the most of the space left behind by a limping Tyrone Mings to open the scoring - after which the Villa defender was immediately replaced.

He might have had another moments later after another neat Iheanacho pass, but instead it was the Nigerian who bundled home from close range to double the Foxes’ lead.

Leicester seem to have a knack of scoring in timely fashion this season, too.

Evans’ header from a deep Maddison corner stemmed Villa’s fightback after Grealish had struck before the break and Vardy’s second from Dennis Praet’s assist ensured a club record-breaking eighth successive win in the top flight.

Many might be writing them off but no-one has told Leicester, who face their title rivals as part of a packed Christmas schedule.

Frustrating afternoon for Villa and Grealish

It has been a testing week for Villa in which they have had to mix it with two of the top four and face a trip to Manchester United.

That was coupled with the sad news former league-winning manager Ron Saunders passed away on Saturday.

After earning a draw at Old Trafford and suffering a narrow defeat by Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, boss Dean Smith said in his programme notes that his side had proved they can compete with those towards the top of the division. But they were blown away by Leicester on Sunday.

At times, captain Grealish must have felt like he was leading the fight on his own, and he cut a frustrated figure - sarcastically applauding the award of a throw-in in the first half and getting booked in the second.

The 24-year-old was up against another number 10 in Maddison who, albeit a playmaker of a different ilk, will be challenging him for a place in England’s European Championships squad next summer.

Grealish, cutting in from the left, where he has been deployed in recent weeks despite saying he sees himself as more of an ‘8’, got on the scoresheet and started the move in which Anwar El Ghazi scuffed Matt Targett’s low cross against the bar with the game goalless.

Grealish is yet to get the Three Lions call at senior level, while Maddison made his debut against Montenegro last month and has been told by national boss Gareth Southgate to be “high-performance and low maintenance”.

It was the Leicester man who left Villa Park the happier of the pair after his corner was headed in by Evans to effectively seal the visitors the points, and the 23-year-old might have got on the scoresheet himself after Vardy unselfishly teed him up on the edge of the Villa area, but his effort was narrowly wide.

It means Villa, and Grealish, find themselves teetering on the edge of the relegation zone with just one point to show from three games this week.
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*The Guardian*
*Sunday, 8 December 2019*

Jamie Vardy strikes twice as Leicester beat Aston Villa to keep up title chase

It is a good thing for Jürgen Klopp that Liverpool keep winning, because so do their most impressive rivals. Leicester City swept to their eighth league victory in a row – their best ever streak in the top-flight – to move back to within eight points of the league leaders. An insurmountable gap? Probably, but only a fool would completely discount this fearsome Leicester side.

Naturally, Jamie Vardy scored here, the eighth game in a row in which he has done so. He struck twice to bring his tally to the season so far to 16 and to close in on his own Premier League record of 11 consecutive matches with a goal. Kelechi Iheanacho and Jonny Evans also found the net for the visitors, with Jack Grealish offering only fleeting hope to the hosts. No other team this season has beaten Villa as emphatically as this.

Before kick-off there was a warm ovation in tribute to Ron Saunders, the former Villa manager who died on Saturday at the age of 87. Saunders was the inspiration behind some of Villa’s greatest achievements, turning them from a second-tier side into League Cup winners and English champions before leaving with the club on the verge of European coronation in 1982. Those are feats that any football supporter can appreciate, though it was perhaps fitting that Leicester were the visitors here, as their rise in recent years is vaguely comparable to the one led by Saunders, so long as allowance is made for the differences in eras.

Mind you, when the match got under way and a keg of Leicester fans launched into their familiar chant of “champions of England, you’ll never sing that”, one was reminded that these are times in which some people are determined to celebrate ignorance.

Vardy, meanwhile, is a phenomenon that everyone can celebrate. Five years ago, on the only previous occasion that Leicester won eight league matches in a row – in the Championship – he scored the decisive goal in a victory at Birmingham City. Here, in a different part of the second city, he showed his enduring deadliness by opening the scoring in the 20th minute. It was not his surest finish, because, after going around the goalkeeper, he initially miskicked. But Ezri Konsa slipped, allowing Vardy to recover and prod in the net from close range.

The chance had been created by a loss of possession in midfield by Wesley and an astute through-ball by Iheanacho. Rodgers had decided to award the Nigerian a first league start of the season after being impressed by his performance off the bench against Everton last week. Iheanacho offered further justification for that decision by notching Leicester’s second goal from close range in the 41st minute. Konsa may have unwittingly got a touch to the ball as he tried to deflect it out of the striker’s path but the goal was fair reward for a slick move that started with Caglar Soyuncu striding out of defence before James Maddison pinged a low cross to the near post.

Things were looking ominous for Villa, who lost Tyrone Mings to a hamstring injury after the first goal and cursed an 11th-minute miss by Anwar El Ghazi, who shot against the crossbar from six yards after a fine delivery by Matt Targett.

Leicester, however, had threatened even before that, with Iheanacho forcing a decent save from Tom Heaton in the third minute after being slipped in by Maddison.

Maddison radiated dangerous influence at the tip of the midfield diamond that Rodgers chose to deploy for this game instead of his usual 4-3-3. Dennis Praet, chosen in midfield ahead of Harvey Barnes, sent Vardy racing clear down the right just after the half hour. The striker tried to feed Iheanacho coming in from the other side but Bjorn Engels, who had replaced Mings, made a key interception.

Villa were having little joy in attack, where their lone centre-forward, Wesley, struggled to make an impact. But so long as they have Grealish, they always have a threat. He underlined that point in stoppage time at the end of the first half. After Leicester for once failed to clear a corner adequately, the ball broke to Grealish, who, from about 16 yards, swept a superb shot in off the far post.

That proved to be no more than an irritant to Leicester. They regained their two-goal lead shortly after half-time. The ease with which they did so can only have angered Dean Smith. Maddison floated a corner beyond the cluster of players near the penalty spot before Evans, having sneaked into space, guided an expert header into the top corner of the net.

What struck most after that was Leicester’s relentlessness. They craved more goals. Vardy helped himself to another one thanks to another canny pass by Praet. Maddison, Barnes Tielemans nearly made the toll even heavier, and Heaton had to make a brilliant save to foil Soyuncu.
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*Sky Sports*
*Sunday, 8 December 2019*

Leicester beat Aston Villa 4-1 at Villa Park with Jamie Vardy scoring twice to cement their grip on second spot.

Vardy started and finished the scoring, netting for the eighth game in a row, while Kelechi Iheanacho and Jonny Evans were also on target either side of Jack Grealish’s strike.

In an open and entertaining contest on the day that Villa marked the sad passing of former manager Ron Saunders, the greater thrust of the visitors’ forward line proved decisive.

Aston Villa actually had the first clear chance of the game but Anwar El Ghazi contrived to fire against the crossbar from close range and it soon proved costly for the home side.

Wesley surrendered possession in his own half and Iheanacho’s clever ball found Vardy who rounded Tom Heaton and found the net at the second attempt after scuffing his first effort.

Vardy had the chance to double the lead soon after when he saw his shot blocked and then should have returned the favour to Iheanacho but was unable to pick him out with his pass.

Iheanacho did not have to wait long for his goal though and turned in James Maddison’s cross from the left in at the near post after good work by Caglar Soyuncu in the build-up.

That goal left the home crowd stunned and with Tyrone Mings having already succumbed to a muscle injury all hope seemed lost.

But in first-half stoppage time, Grealish, Villa’s talismanic captain, struck a deflected shot that beat Kasper Schmeichel at the far post.

That goal meant that the result was in the balance after the break but the feeling didn’t last long as Villa’s poor marking from a set piece proved their undoing.

Maddison’s drilled corner found the head of the unmarked Jonny Evans who expertly forced the ball into the far corner of the net to open up a two-goal lead once more.

Maddison and Barnes missed good opportunities to extend the lead further before Dennis Praet’s lofted pass sent Vardy clear for his second of the afternoon and 16th of the season.

There was still time for Heaton to save brilliantly from Soyuncu but Leicester could settle for an eighth consecutive Premier League victory - their best ever sequence of wins in the top flight. Villa look like a team in need of one.

Dean Smith: “Goals change games, they always do. Anwar has missed a chance but they had a couple before that. We got in some really good areas. Some of our play was really good.

“I didn’t think any of the goals were because of the tactics. I was quite happy when I saw they were playing a diamond in all honesty. We just didn’t defend well enough for the goals.

“You can’t expect to win games at Villa Park when you concede 23 opportunities. I just feel our defensive structure needs to be better and our individual defending needs to be better.

“It was one of those games where Tom kept the score down at the end. It could have been 8-4 as it went a bit basketball. But we won’t be the first or the last to be beaten by Leicester.”