Leicester, Chelsea leave it late to win in Premier League

Leicester’s Riyad Mahrez, center, is tackled by Norwich’s Alexander Tettey, left, during the English Premier League soccer match between Leicester City and Norwich City at the King Power Stadium in Leicester, England, Saturday, Feb. 27, 2016.

Scoreless after 70 minutes, Ranieri began his trademark tinkering and the introduction of Leonardo Ulloa changed the game as he went on to score the winning goal.

“If I was Riyad, I would say, ‘There are a lot of teams who want me”.

Leicester City’s Leonardo Ulloa celebrates his goal.

Norwich City have won just one of their last 13 Premier League away games. Bottom of the standings at Christmas in 2014 and top of them at Christmas in 2015, the Midlands club was widely expected to drop points as the season wore on. But they were kept in check as Norwich played Leicester at its own game, sitting deep and then looking to hit the opposition on the break.

The victor was just Ulloa’s third goal of the season as he plays second fiddle to Jamie Vardy and Shinji Okazaki, and he came on with 12 minutes left after Ranieri shuffled his pack. “I think if we’d have come in at 0-0 we’d have been fairly satisfied, probably a bit disappointed not to score a goal, but after that sucker-punch we come in feeling even worse”, said Russell Martin.

The Foxes are enjoying an historical season, leading the Premier League after 26 matches, gaining 53 points and scoring 48 goals in the process.

“As I have said many times, we have a fantastic dressing room”.

“I hope he is ready because he is an important player”.

A new contract to raise his £35,000-a-week wages significantly is in the pipeline and Ranieri believes qualifying for the Champions League will strengthen Leicester’s position. Yet this was a decent performance that could have yielded so much more if Cameron Jerome had not wasted a golden headed opportunity in the first half.

He said: “Ulloa is happy but everyone is happy”. We believe that it will be a very important thing, to restart after the Arsenal defeat and to get three points. It’s important to stay focus and to give 100 percent because against Norwich it was so hard and against West Brom it will be the same. Every match is a battle. If he shows me he’s the best over another, he plays.

The Canaries, though, have lost seven of their last eight games in all competitions, but after their efforts boss Alex Neil felt defeat was harsh on his side.

“We’ve got a big game Tuesday (at home to Chelsea) and if we can fight and scrap, create as many chances as we did today, keep the opposition quiet, then we’ve got a good chance”.