What We Learned – Leicester City 2 Southampton 0 [VIDEO]

Algerian Riyad Mahrez’s first half brace decided the result at King Power Stadium as Leicester City continued their impressive end of season form, beating Southampton 2-0.

Mahrez’s two left-footed strikes in the seventh and 19th minutes saw the Foxes come out victors in what was an open game for the most part. The goals were the winger’s first since December of last year and brought his total to four Premier League goals.

Ronald Koeman will be disappointed with both goals and will feel that his side could have done more to prevent them. Some weak defending from Harrison Reed and a poor clearance from surprise goalkeeping inclusion Paulo Gazzaniga played a part in creating the goals.

The only sour note for Nigel Pearson was the injury to Matty James. The 2014-15 Leicester City Young Player of the Season had to be stretchered off inside the first quarter of an hour with a knee injury.

Southampton’s slide

Southampton fans will be worried after their team, which not too long ago was sitting in the top four, picked up just four points from a possible 18 in its last six matches. The dip in form comes at a worrying point in the season with the possibility of Europa League football still on the cards and, contrastingly, dropping down even further to finish eighth also a chance.

With a game at home next week against in-form Aston Villa followed by a trip to face Manchester City away, Southampton will be looking for maximum points to give itself every chance of playing in Europe. The points will also go towards ensuring that Swansea, a team in good touch, does not overtake the South Coast club in the remaining weeks of the season.

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Saints attack looking blunt

Despite having over two thirds of the possession, the Saints rarely looked threatening going forward, with the Foxes’ three centre-backs stifling the play. Graziano Pellè and Sadio Mané seemed to be bullied by the big-bodied defenders and the only real space afforded to the Saints attack was down the flanks behind the wing-backs but every resulting ball into the box was easily dealt with. Ryan Bertrand and Nathaniel Clyne were able to find time and space enough to put balls into the area but the Foxes defenders positioned themselves well and were assured in their clearances.

Leicester’s central-defensive trio of Wes Morgan, Robert Huth and Marcin Wasilewski pushed and pressured whenever Southampton’s possession wandered into their part of the field, forcing attacks to build from deeper. Clearly missing the midfield play of injured Morgan Schneiderlin, the team from St. Mary’s seemed to run out of ideas and was unable to muster many an effort on Kasper Schmeichel’s goal.

Leicester’s resurgence

Unlike its higher-placed opponents, Leicester has dramatically turned around its form for the better with this result making it six wins from its last seven matches. The Foxes have registered almost a third of their points tally of 37 in the last five weeks. Sitting in 15th, another win in either of their remaining fixtures would all but confirm their Premier League survival.

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Another exciting relegation battle is set to unfold in the season’s last two games with two teams already confirmed for the drop. Queens Park Rangers and now Burnley will be in the Championship next season with Hull City, Newcastle and Sunderland prime candidates for that final spot, though realistically, Leicester and Aston Villa are both still in the running.