LEICESTER CITY 4, MAN CITY 2
Manchester City looked far from Barclays Premier League title contenders following their shambolic defeat at lowly Leicester City who dramatically rediscovered last season’s championship form.
And City’s honeymoon under Pep Guardiola is well and truly over as they are in the midst of a desperately poor run of form.
Guardiola’s arrival was followed by 10 straight wins as the move from Germany’s Bundesliga to the Premier League looked a breeze.
The wheels have well and truly fallen off as City’s defeat at the King Power Stadium mean they have won only four times in their last 15 games in all competitions.
The damage was inflicted in a disastrous opening 20 minutes in which Leicester scored three goals as Jamie Vardy twice found the net to end his barren spell while Andy King also hit a screamer from outside the box.
And Vardy completed a hat trick late in the game to make it a night to forget for City who, despite scoring two late consolation goals from Aleksandar Kolarov and Nolito, were unbeaten in their last 10 visits to Leicester where they last tasted defeat in 1988 in the old second division.
Guardiola admitted his side didn’t deal with Leicester’s style of play.
And he again admitted City need to be better in both boxes.
He said: “Congratulations to Leicester. We didn’t deal with both first and second balls.
“I have to try and understand why it happened. I have to analyse it and how we can do things better because I don’t want to lose games.”
City had Kelechi Iheanacho leading the line in the absence of Sergio Aguero who began a four-match ban, punishment for his sending off against Chelsea.
And there was a place in midfield for Fernando Reges as Fernandinho was also banned after last week’s dismissal.
Guardiola persevered with a back three of Bacary Sagna, John Stones and Kolarov with Pablo Zabeleta again in the centre of midfield after his impressive midweek display against Celtic in the Champions League.
But in an explosive opening, City’s defence was twice breached in the first five minutes and, after 20 minutes, for a third time as Leicester tore them to shreds.
Only two minutes had been played when Leicester broke the deadlock.
Robert Huth’s defensive header released Riyad Mahrez whose flick set up Islam Slimani whose slide-rule pass released Vardy to race clear and fire low past keeper Claudio Bravo for only his fourth goal of the season.
It soon became 2-0 when City failed to clear a long throw into their box from Christian Fuchs. Slimani provided a second assist laying the ball back to King whose fired a 20-yard shot into the top corner of the net for his first of the season.
Slimani had a chance to get on to the scoresheet, but blazed over from six yards.
Leicester made it 3-0 after 20 minutes after another excellent move. Left-back Fuchs broke forward and sprayed a great ball out to Mahrez on the right. His first-time ball released Vardy who raced clear and rounded Bravo before slotting the ball into an empty net.
They may well have added further goals in the opening period as Mahrez forced a fine save from Bravo and Slimani headed wide in stoppage time when he ought to have hit the target.
Guardiola’s side mustered a handful of half chances, but never seriously looked like scoring.
Iheanacho, sliding in, just failed to connect with a Kevin de Bruyne cross-cum-shot, Kolarov headed wide and De Bruyne’s angled shot was punched out by keeper Ron-Robert Zieler.
De Bruyne and Ilkay Gundogan both shot narroly wide for City early in the second half, but Leicester’s high press prevented City from playing the slick passing football Guardiola advocates as they were frequently forced to hoof the ball long out of defence.
There was a need to change and just short of the hour Guardiola made a double switch as Jesus Navas and Iheanacho were replaced by Yaya Toure and Raheem Sterling. And the third change soon followed as Gundogan made way for Nolito.
Leicester added a fourth goal after 78 minutes after another dreadful blunder by Stones who sold Bravo short with a back pass. Vardy made an interception and found the net from the tightest of angles in off the far post as goalline technology was needed to determine whether the ball had crossed the line.
City scored the first of two late consolation goals with eight minutes left when Kolarov found the net with a gem of a free kick curled over the defensive wall and beyond the dive of Zieler.
And City netted a second in the last minute when Nolito eluded his marker to convert a Sterling cross from six yards, but it didn’t disguise the glaring deficiencies that Guardiola has to address.