N’Golo Kante was on the scoresheet against former club Leicester City as Chelsea won 2-1 at the King Power Stadium.
Chelsea made it three wins in a row in the Premier League with a 2-1 victory away to Leicester City on Saturday.
Alvaro
Morata opened the scoring with his third of the season before N’Golo
Kante fired home against his old club to make the points safe, in a
match that saw Eden Hazard make his first appearance of the season for
the Blues.
Antonio Conte’s side had won five of
their previous six away games against Leicester and started in
confident fashion, buoyed by back-to-back wins over Tottenham and
Everton.
Islam Slimani missed a great chance to
break the deadlock and Chelsea capitalised soon afterwards, with Morata
heading home from close range.
Kante slotted
in his first goal in the top flight since the 4-0 thrashing of
Manchester United last October to put the visitors in control, although
Jamie Vardy’s penalty made for a more anxious final 30 minutes than
Conte would have liked.
Craig Shakespeare’s
side pushed hard for the equaliser but Chelsea held firm to claim a
third win since their shock opening-day loss to Burnley, leaving
Leicester to nurse a third defeat in four games.
Chelsea
controlled the early exchanges, Morata bringing a save out of Kasper
Schmeichel after just two minutes and Wes Morgan nearly turning a Victor
Moses cross into his own net.
Vardy sliced
wide in a rare opening for Leicester but their best chance of the half
fell to Slimani, who was denied by a fine one-handed stop from Thibaut
Courtois after Riyad Mahrez had led a fast break.
Leicester
finished the half in encouraging fashion with a succession of corners
but Conte’s side seized control of the match five minutes after the
restart, as Antonio Rudiger teed up Kante to drill right-footed into the
bottom-left corner of the net with unerring accuracy from 25 yards out.
Courtois
gave Leicester a lifeline just after the hour mark, bringing down Vardy
as he slid to intercept the ball at his near post, allowing the England
striker to fire home from the penalty spot despite the Belgium
goalkeeper getting a touch.
Chelsea had penalty
appeals of their own waved away by referee Lee Mason when Demarai Gray
made contact with the ball with his arm while challenging Moses, with
the visitors looking eager to restore their two-goal cushion and make
the points safe.
Conte threw on fit-again
Hazard and gave a debut cameo to Davide Zappacosta, who almost fired
home a third from a tight angle before Willian wasted a wonderful
opportunity to get on the scoresheet late on.
That
miss proved costly for Shakespeare’s side as, less than two minutes
later, Chelsea found the breakthrough. Cesar Azpilicueta created space
down the right and clipped a cross towards the edge of the six-yard box,
where Morata made no mistake in heading firmly past Schmeichel.
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