Leicester City have looked short of a spark in 2022, having not won a Premier League game in January or February. It is no coincidence their form has slumped in Jamie Vardy’s absence. In his first 18 minutes of action of the year he created a goal and scored another to defeat Burnley.
The former England striker came off the bench alongside James Maddison, quickly using a clever run to stay onside when his teammates could not, allowing him to lay the ball off to his fellow substitute to curl home the opener in the 82nd minute.
Vardy then used his intelligence to seal the victory in the last minute as he found space to head into an empty net to ensure Burnley ended the night in the relegation zone.
Brendan Rodgers praised his returning striker. “I was so happy he could be involved,” the Leicester manager said. “The last few days he has looked really bright, really sharp and he wanted to come and help the team even if it was for 15 or 20 minutes.
“That tells you everything about his attitude and then you see his energy when he comes into the game. He is a catalyst for us. It was a great introduction for him and great to have him back.”
The recently resurgent Burnley, like their broken public address system, looked faulty in the early stages. They struggled to maintain possession and should have been behind within 10 minutes when Ricardo Pereira cut in from the right and played a one-two with Marc Albrighton before driving a shot from inside the area that looked destined for the bottom corner until Nick Pope’s outstretched arm diverted the ball away to safety.
There was confusion in the usually rigid Burnley defence when Leicester were permitted to take a short corner, working the cross to the back post where James Tarkowski was waiting to head clear but the centre-back sent the ball straight up rather than out. He assumed Pope was coming to catch but the goalkeeper was nowhere to be seen, allowing Patson Daka to aim for the corner, only to see the Burnley No 1 repel the effort.
Burnley thought they had opened the scoring after Aaron Lennon’s trickery defeated the Leicester defence and slid the ball across goal for Maxwel Cornet to tap into the empty net for what he thought was his first goal in almost two months. As the Ivorian turned away to celebrate, though, he caught the sight of the assistant’s raised flag, and the goal was rightly ruled out for offside.
Cornet got the better of the back four legally in the 69th minute when he latched on to a delicate Dwight McNeil through ball. The forward used a burst of pace to reach the pass but under pressure from Caglar Soyuncu could only toe poke a shot meekly past Kasper Schmeichel and wide of the Leicester goal.
Leicester’s response was to bring on Vardy for his first appearance of the year after recovering from a hamstring injury. He decided to test his muscles with an acrobatic bicycle kick from eight yards out but it was more rusty Penny Farthing than BMX in its execution as the ball sailed high into the stand.
Pope made another stunning save after Harvey Barnes cut in from the left to curl a shot towards the top corner but the sprawling goalkeeper palmed it wide.
There was nothing Pope could do moments later when Vardy stayed onside to collect a Schmeichel clearance, before laying the ball off to Maddison who drove at goal and picked out the bottom corner. Vardy put the result beyond doubt in the final minute as he headed into an empty net after good work on the left by Barnes.
A fourth unbeaten game in a row would have enabled Burnley to move out of the bottom three – a fact which left Sean Dyche a frustrated figure. “We didn’t start right,” the manager said. “Too many backwards passes, too much slow play, too many poor decisions with the ball. No lack of effort, just that lack of clarity with our play.”
