Photo by Justin Tallis Credit: POOL/AFP via Getty Images
The goals
continue to pile on as the new season of English Premier League move forward amidst
odd circumstances. On Sunday, Leicester played Manchester City and Pep
Guardiola was left bemoaning his side’s attitude after The Foxes ran a riot at
Etihad Stadium scoring 5 goals. To be fair, Manchester City’s squad was missing
key players but a club like City should have more depth in their ranks to face
any kind of opponent on any given day. The club escaped punishment after
violating financial fair play rules and spent millions on new players for
2020-21 season.
The Sunday
game showed how fragile Manchester City could be at times. The fragility was
consistently exposed by foreign sides in Uefa Champions League year in year out
but Manchester City enjoyed an untouchable status domestically albeit
struggling somewhat against English champions Liverpool. Every team struggle
against Liverpool.
The hero on
Sunday for Leicester was Jamie Vardy. The ever-reliable English striker scored
a stunning hat-trick to take The Foxes to the top of the table. Leicester fans
should feel extremely grateful for their striker as many forwards across footballing
world jump ship to wealthy clubs and in search of substantial pay rise once
they have established themselves as a consistent goal scorers. Yet, Vardy
remains at Leicester showing the modern football is not all about money.
Manchester
City’s defence was laid out to waster on Sunday. Mahrez wonderful goal gave them
a solid start but soon Kyle Walker fouled Vardy inside the 12-yeard box and a
penalty was awarded to Leicester. There was no need of controversial VAR as the
foul was as dirty as one could be. Vardy took the penalty with absolute
confidence and Leicester used the goal as leverage to propel themselves forward.
5 minutes into the second half, Vardy scored again at close range and scored
again a penalty. In the end, Manchester City rued themselves and Leicester had
gone home with high spirits knowing they played one of the best games in the
season and the season had just started hinting there is more to come.
