Leicester City certainly weren’t at their best on Tuesday evening but it was enough to defeat Sunderland 1-0 at the Stadium of Light.
The East Midlanders went ahead early through Jamie Vardy, who headed home a loose ball in the box following Wout Faes’ saved effort.
Victory ended a run of three defeats on the bounce and kept them three points clear of Ipswich Town, who reside in second place.
Though, despite the win, Enzo Maresca delivered a pretty bizarre claim post-match and labelled it ‘the worst’ performance in the last four games.
Enzo Maresca not happy with Leicester City performance v Sunderland
Maresca’s team needed a reaction last night after a dismal run of form in the Championship, which has seen their lead at the summit cut from 12 points to three.
The Foxes shipped seven goals in three games heading into the clash at Sunderland and were in desperate need of a reaction.
City did just that and managed to keep a clean sheet but Maresca, interestingly, wasn’t particularly happy with the display.
Speaking post-match, the former Manchester City assistant said: “After the three defeats in a row, it was important to win the game tonight. Probably tonight’s game has been the worst. Especially second half, we didn’t play well. Or at least we didn’t play in the way we played in the three games we lost.
“But at the end, football is about taking chances. We created many chances in the three defeats that we didn’t score. Tonight, again, we started the first half with many clear chances that we didn’t score. But fortunately we scored through Jamie.”
The City boss, however, was pleased with the ‘ugly’ aspect of his side’s win: “Also, as a team, we need to grow and to learn to win games in ugly ways like tonight. The second half we suffered a lot. The way they suffered together as a team, this is an important thing. I just said to them, if we want to improve as a team, we also need to suffer together and win games in an ugly way like tonight.”
Leicester City learning to win in different ways
It can’t always be free-flowing attacking football and Leicester displayed a different way to win last night, as they ground out the three points.
It was a gritty display from Maresca’s side and they’ll likely need to draw upon that steeliness heading into the business end of the campaign.
Almost every side in the division will have something to play for, meaning the dynamic of the matches may start to shift.
Teams will be battling and raising their levels now as they fight to survive, reach the playoffs or for automatic promotion.