Leicester City 4-0 Swansea: Leonardo Ulloa double inspires Premier League leaders to emphatic win as they close in on title
- Riyad Mahrez fired Leicester City ahead on 10 minutes - capitalising on a loose Ashley Williams pass
- Leicester doubled their lead on the half-hour mark when Leonardo Ulloa headed home from a free-kick
- The 29-year-old notched his second on 60 minutes from close range after a Jeffrey Schlupp assist
- Leicester substitute Marc Albrighton completed the scoring with a tap-in on 85 minutes
Individual honours may soon be followed by an even bigger prize, one shared by the entire club. Leicester are five points away from winning the league title, perhaps even closer if their sole rivals, Tottenham, drop points.
Mauricio Pochettino will no doubt have watched this game hoping for another stumble only to find the pressure shifted back on to his shoulders, and in emphatic fashion. If his Tottenham team fail to beat West Bromwich Albion at home on Monday night, Leicester could even win the league at Old Trafford next Sunday.
Leicester City striker Leonardo Ulloa (left) celebrates with strike partner Shinji Okazaki (centre) after scoring their third goal on Sunday
The Argentine forward scored the Premier League leaders' third goal of the afternoon against Swansea with this close-range finish
Leicester's No 23 bundled the ball into an empty net - despite the best efforts of Swansea defender Federico Fernandez to prevent it
Ulloa was a picture of ecstasy after scoring his second goal of the afternoon against their Welsh opponents to make sure of the win
As was Leicester manager Claudio Ranieri who punched the air with delight at Ulloa's second goal to give them a 3-0 lead
will be a tall order, but Claudio Ranieri's players have time on their side. For Tottenham, it is running out. The loss of Jamie Vardy, through suspension, was seen as a potential game-changer. Instead Leicester recorded their biggest league win since a 5-1 dismantling of Queens Park Rangers on the final day of last season.
There were two goals for Vardy's replacement, Leonardo Ulloa, an opener after 10 minutes to settle the nerves and the two-goal half-time lead was Leicester's biggest since August. 'Four-nil to the one-man team,' crowed the locals, although only a fool would have Leicester pegged as that this season. They are the ultimate 11-man team, plus extras, a fact summed up by the fourth goal that included contributions from all three of Ranieri's substitutes.
It will be harder against Manchester United without Vardy if the Football Association decide to increase his ban, of course, but Leicester have options. They can play on the counter, settle for a draw and still stay in command. It is Tottenham who must push, push, push all the way to the last day of the season.
The King Power Stadium was a see of blue and white as Leicester City supporters got behind their team before kick-off
Leicester boss Ranieri embraces Swansea counterpart Francesco Guidolin ahead of Sunday's action
Jamie Vardy (back left, clapping) was among the fans inside the King Power Stadium on Sunday as he served his one-game ban
Swansea playmaker Gylfi Sigurdsson (right) tries to skip past Leicester captain Wes Morgan during the opening exchanges
Morgan was in the thick of the action early on - this time clearing a Swansea attack under pressure from Wayne Routledge
'Leicester City — we're coming for you,' their fans teased last week. Sunday brought the perfect response. 'Tottenham Hotspur — we're waiting for you,' Leicester sang, cockily. In other words, catch us if you can.
Tottenham have been left hoping for long shots. Here it was the thought that Leicester might need Vardy to defeat an unremarkable Swansea team or that having nothing to play for — even manager Francesco Guidolin will be gone at the end of the season — might allow their opponents to attack with freewheeling, ambitious football. Wrong, and wrong again.
Vardy was not required, and Swansea were neat at times but generally hopeless. There wasn't even a rogue refereeing performance to even it up as happened last week, Mark Clattenburg being no Jonathan Moss and taking charge of the game without a moment's controversy.
Vardy watched on from an executive box but at times seemed almost distracted, checking his mobile telephone as the game unfolded, unfazed by the importance of the occasion. The noise levels inside the ground were as deafening as they had ever been, but this was the only indication that this match was different to the others.
From the moment Riyad Mahrez opened the scoring Leicester's three points were never in doubt, and Vardy had the look of a man who knew the game was safe.
If there was unfinished business between Mahrez and Swansea captain Ashley Williams before this match, it is fair to say it is over now. The pair clashed in December when Leicester won 3-0 at the Liberty Stadium, and Williams took exception to a Mahrez foul in the penalty area.
At the end of the game he attempted to follow Mahrez on to the Leicester team bus to continue their conversation, but if he planned to adopt that hoariest of clichés by doing his talking on the pitch here, his opening statement proved far from eloquent.
Riyad Mahrez wheels away in celebration after opening the scoring on Sunday for the Premier League leaders
Mahrez made Williams pay after a sloppy pass from the Swansea skipper led to his chance, from which he put Leicester ahead
The Algerian slides on his knees in celebration as Ranieri's side get off to the perfect start after just 10 minutes
Leicester's No 26 was duly congratulated by his team-mates after netting his 17th Premier League goal of a fabulous campaign
Mahrez's strike was promptly celebrated by Vardy and his fiancee Becky Nicholson at a buoyant King Power Stadium
Pressured to clear by a hasty back-pass from Leroy Fer, Williams succeeded only in hitting a sloppy hoof straight at Mahrez as he tried to close him down. The ball fell favourably, but Mahrez's finish elevated a fairly basic slice of good fortune into something rather special. He didn't panic, he didn't rush. He moved on goal, stopped, checked his stride, convinced goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski that he would be aiming for the far post, and slipped it smartly past him low at the near post instead.
The roar in the stadium was as much of relief as jubilation. For all the rousing rhetoric before the game, everyone in the crowd will have feared the pressure of a goalless scoreline as the second-half minutes ticked away, the tension unbearable, the creeping fear that this incredible season might end in heartbreak. A goal to the good, they exhaled. The players did, too, and could have had the game won by half-time.
In the 27th minute, Fabianski punched a corner clear, Danny Drinkwater fired a shot back and Christian Fuchs almost turned the ball in amid a scramble. A minute later, Jeffrey Schlupp — preferred to Marc Albrighton in a rare unforced change by Ranieri — fed Shinji Okazaki, whose shot was deflected just wide.
Leicester's intensity told two minutes later. Drinkwater struck a perfect free-kick from the left which Ulloa met at the near post, leaving Fabianski no chance. Ranieri had pronounced his faith in his reserve striker almost from the moment Vardy was sent off against West Ham last week, and this was why.
Swansea midfielder Leroy Fer and N'Golo Kante battle for a ball as Leicester extended their lead at the top of the Premier League
Mahrez was in fine form and came close to scoring as he attacked visiting left back Neil Taylor before shooting with this chance
With half an hour played, Leicester doubled their advantage through Vardy's replacement Ulloa (left)
The 29-year-old rose the highest from a free-kick to head the Foxes into a two-goal lead at the King Power Stadium
The Argentine (second left) watches on as his header nestles inside the hapless Lukasz Fabianski's net
Ulloa peels away in celebration among a backdrop of delirious Leicester City supporters at the King Power Stadium
That goal was just the 29-year-old's fifth of the Foxes' fairytale Premier League campaign so far, but he has popped up at important times
Ulloa's strike sent the Leicester supporters into mass jubilation as they doubled their advantage at the King Power Stadium
Leicester midfielder Danny Drinkwater runs at the heart of the Swansea defence as the hosts go on the attack in the second half
Far from being a novice, when Ulloa arrived from Brighton in 2014, he cost a club record £8million, and his instinct for goal remains very much intact.
His second, after 60 minutes, was the clincher, the one that allowed the King Power Stadium to properly let go. Credit goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel with a big role in the build-up, his kicked clearance picking out Schlupp on the left, with Angel Rangel's challenge falling well short of what was required.
Schlupp set off, full of speed and energy, outstripping Federico Fernandez and bursting into the penalty area. He hesitated and Williams came across to block his shot, but the ball rebounded to Schlupp who prodded it towards goal. The ball seemed to be bobbling wide, but in swooped Ulloa at the far post to make sure. It was simply Leicester's day, a fact confirmed by a fourth goal that involved each of Ranieri's three substitutes.
Demarai Gray sped down the right, skinning Williams once more, and his cross picked out Andy King, deep. Misdirecting a header across goal, King succeeded only in finding Gray who had continued his run into the box and forced a save from Fabianski. Out the ball came, straight to Albrighton, who smashed it in to confirm Leicester's biggest win of the campaign.
It could have been more, had Leicester taken all their chances. Another for Fuchs in the first half, plus a Schlupp shot tipped round after 66 minutes and an Okazaki finish struck over the bar all threatened to make this an embarrassment for Swansea.
They had a couple of cracks, usually through dead balls from Gylfi Sigurdsson, but are far from being members of the Premier League's awkward squad. A West Brom team sent out by Tony Pulis? That could be a different matter. As Leicester's champions elect flew south on Sunday night, they will have reflected happily on Tottenham's players tucked up in bed, yet with it all to do.
Ulloa's goalscoring exploits came to a halt when he picked up a back injury towards the end of the second half
His absence didn't stop the Foxes' goalscoring capabilities though as substitute Marc Albrighton added a fourth late on
The winger tapped home from close range on 85 minutes to complete an emphatic victory for the Premier League leaders
Albrighton was duly congratulated by his team-mates as Swansea full back Angel Rangel cut a forlorn figure waiting for the restart
Leicester just need five points from their remaining three matches to lift the Premier League for the first time in their history
Leicester supporter holds aloft a scarf as the east Midlands outfit close in on their first-ever top-flight title
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