In Sunday’s other Premier League match, Leonardo Ulloa deputised seamlessly for Jamie Vardy in a 4-0 victory over Swansea City on Sunday that took Leicester City to within five points of the Premier League title.
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Shorn of the attacking talents of the suspended England striker Jamie Vardy, Argentina’s Leonardo Ulloa scored a double to help the Foxes outclass the visiting Welsh side at a delirious King Power Stadium.
Riyad Mahrez’s opener was complemented by a Leonardo Ulloa brace and a Marc Albrighton strike as Swansea were beaten as soundly as a 4-0 scoreline suggests, moving City eight points clear of Tottenham ahead of the second-placed side’s clash with West Brom on Monday.
“I told my players before the match – we have the dream so far, now make the dream reality”, Ranieri told his post-match press conference. “We can have no regrets”.
“OK, but we have to fight”.
Petr Cech and the crossbar denied Sunderland a priceless Barclays Premier League victory, as Arsenal failed to reclaim third place from Manchester City.
Leicester are in touching distance of a fairytale first-ever top-flight English football title now, and it never really looked in doubt once Ashley Williams’ careless clearance after 10 minutes gifted Riyad Mahrez his 17th goal of the season.
Brimming with confidence, Mahrez pulled off a couple of tricks on the edge of the Swansea box before firing a shot at goal from the angle, but Williams turned it behind.
Ulloa received a rapturous ovation after he came off with a back injury but the King Power, by now in full party mode, could celebrate one final goal after Albrighton followed up fine work from substitute Demarai Gray to hammer in from close range five minutes from time.
Two wins from the last three games will guarantee Claudio Ranieri’s team the title.
“I wouldn’t have been able to do it without the team. After the first goal, our match became more hard”.
“Without our top scorer it’s not easy, but hopefully on Sunday everybody can give something more to win the match”, he said. Going into Sunday’s game they had just four games left to go, and while overcoming Swansea City wouldn’t have been the most daunting of tasks, they were still capable of causing Leicester trouble in the right circumstances.
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“We needed this win because it’s closer, three games to go, we’re eight points clear – as Tottenham didn’t play yet”. “We fight against teams who fight not to go down, so we prepare to fight again next Saturday”. We missed Vardy – he is a very good player – but we could play well. “Hopefully we can get enough points to stay out of trouble”.
