Chelsea won back-to-back Premier League matches for the first time in 2023 after defeating Leicester City 3-1 on Saturday evening.
Premier League
Result: Leicester City 1-3 Chelsea
Date: 11 March 2023
Venue: King Power Stadium
The Blues made two changes to the side that beat Borussia Dortmund in the UEFA Champions League, as Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Mykhailo Mudryk were recalled while Raheem Sterling and Reece James were not in the squad.
Graham Potter's charges had a perfect start as Ben Chilwell fired them ahead within 11 minutes with a volley at the near post after a cross by Kalidou Koulibaly.
The sides had end to end attacks after that as Joao Felix was denied by the post on 24 minutes after a dink over goalkeeper Danny Ward and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall had a deflected shot two minutes later for Leicester that came off the crossbar and kindly fell on the hands of the grateful goalkeeper Kepa.
As the game continued to open up, Felix had a goal for the Blues chalked off by the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) for offside and the Foxes caught Potter's men on a counter-attack six minutes before the interval after Patson Daka unleashed a shot that sailed over Kepa.
The hosts had time to head into the interval leading 2-1 after Kai Havertz found the back of the net on the stroke of half-time with a chip over Ward after a through ball over the top by Enzo Fernandez.
Leicester were spirited from the break as they put Chelsea under a lot of pressure and just after the hour-mark, Harry Souttar almost deflected a shot in the box into the back of the net but half-time substitute Conor Gallagher made a goal-line clearance.
The Blues were playing on counter-attacks, as they weathered the storm and Potter made a tactical change on 73 minutes, as Christian Pulisic came on for Chilwell, in a change of shape at the back and going forward.
With acres of space behind Leicester's defence, Mudryk thought the had sealed the deal for Chelsea two minutes later after finishing off a through ball but the goal did not stand for offside.
Mateo Kovacic finally settled the game for Chelsea a couple of minutes later with a volleyed shot in the box after a knock down by Mudryk at the back post.
Things went from bad to worse for Brendan Rodgers' men as they were a man down with two minutes left after Wout Faes got a second booking for a bad challenge and was sent off.
Chelsea were comfortable in the tail end, knocking the ball around, as they won two games on the bounce in the league for the first time this calendar year.
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