Yet Vardy’s furious reaction to what happened appears to have made things worse: his outrage-fuelled attack on Moss after the sending-off has landed him a further charge, one which could well land Vardy an extra match on the sidelines. “If there is another team who play better and win more than us, well done to them”.
Advertisement
But Leonardo Ulloa’s stoppage-time penalty secured the Foxes a 2-2 draw.
Although Leicester manager Claudio Ranieri praised his team’s “fantastic” performance built on “blood, heart and soul”, the match proved costly for the side bidding for their first English top-flight title.
Ranieri remained unruffled despite the setback, studiously avoiding denouncing the referee. He was a good player, the same player he is now with Leicester.
Despite dropping points with the 2-2 draw, Leicester extended its lead to eight points over Tottenham, which is at Stoke on Monday night. “I’m not eagle-eyed, I’m not an ex-referee, I’m not Howard Webb, I’m a football coach and I don’t want to talk about that”, he said. We were anxious at the beginning of the season to achieve 40 points. Now we enjoy, I never speak with my players about the gap, blah, blah, blah.
The Hammers’ slim Champions League hopes also rest on the outcome of tonight’s match, with seven points now separating them from fourth place.
Vardy and Leicester have until 6pm on Thursday to respond to the charge.
Perhaps losing Kasper Schmeichel would have been more damaging.
But Vardy received the first of two bookings 10 minutes later for a late sliding challenge on Cheikhou Kouyate.
Part of that has been thanks to N’Golo Kante, who has made 146 tackles and 134 interceptions this season, the most out of any player. “It is just disappointing and there’s nothing we can do about it when others are making the decision”. Replays showed that it was quite clearly simulation, as Vardy had stepped into the path of Angelo Ogbonna and then fell over like he was shot.
Leicester felt aggrieved as Wes Morgan was penalised for tugging Winston Reid’s shirt for the visitors’ spot-kick.
Gary Lineker has praised Aaron Cresswell’s goal for West Ham United on Twitter, despite it coming against his former side.
Weeks away from completing the greatest underdog story in Premier League history, Leicester City have been on fire in recent weeks.
Advertisement
He added: “The reason why we are doing this is because everyone in the restaurant follows Leicester City and we thought ‘why not do this?'” “We know we always fight to the death and that’s what we did”.
