Leicester City, Wolves play a goalless draw. Leicester City’s outside hopes of winning the Premier League title suffered a blow after being held to a goalless draw at Midlands rivals Wolves.
Brendan Rodgers’ side lie in third place, four points adrift of league leaders Manchester City, who face champions Liverpool at 16:30 GMT, and also have a further game in hand.
The visitors have an excellent away record this season but were flat for large periods of the contest and failed to fully test Rui Patricio.
The Wolves goalkeeper gathered a couple of drives from James Maddison, but the efforts were from range and kept out comfortably.
Striker Jamie Vardy made his return from injury on the hour mark and almost won it in time added on but headed wide from a promising position.
Wolves had just one shot on target throughout the game though it was the best chance for either side – substitute Fabio Silva’s low strike from close range was superbly kept out by Kasper Schmeichel at full stretch.
Nuno Espirito Santo’s side defeated Arsenal last time out but have now won just once in 10 league games and remain 14th in the table.
Lacklustre Leicester held
Leicester stunned English football by claiming a shock Premier League title only five years ago, but will feel this was a missed opportunity in their quest to repeat the feat.
Rodgers’ side extended their run to one defeat in 10 games but failed to draw level on points with second-placed Manchester United, who were held late on at home by Everton on Saturday.
The draw means Leicester have collected 27 points on their travels this season, the joint-most alongside the Red Devils, but a lacklustre showing in front of goal means they failed to score away from home for just the second time this campaign.
Playmaker Maddison attempted to weave his magic but was restricted to strikes from distance, while Kelechi Iheanacho smashed wide from an angle.
Harvey Barnes had a low shot brilliantly blocked by Max Kilman and Vardy – who missed three games because of hernia surgery – almost made a dramatic impact on his return but sent a header wide in the 92nd minute.
Scoring issues for Wolves
Wolves have twice finished seventh since their return to the Premier League in 2018 and are performing below the lofty standards they have set themselves.
Nuno’s side have scored just 23 times in as many games this season, failing to net for the eighth time, and are missing the presence of talismanic striker Raul Jimenez in the opposition area.
Pedro Neto and Adama Traore often got the better of their opposing full-backs but were unable to find a team-mate with their final pass, while January signing Willian Jose barely had a sniff.
Ruben Neves twice blazed over from decent positions in the first half and they could have netted when the ball fell for Silva eight yards out, but his side-footed shot was superbly diverted away by Schmeichel’s outstretched foot.
Another shutout – the stats
- Of the 589 fixtures to have been played 5+ times in the Premier League, Leicester v Wolves has had the highest proportion finish goalless (50%), with four of their eight meetings in the competition ending 0-0.
- Wolves have won just one of their past 10 Premier League games (D4 L5), failing to score in three of their past four in the competition.
- Leicester have kept five clean sheets in 12 away league outings this season, as many as they managed in the whole of 2019-20.
- This was Wolves’ first clean sheet in eight home league games since their 2-0 win over Crystal Palace in October.
- Wolves’ tally of 27 points from 23 league games this season is their lowest return at this stage since their promotion in 2018, five fewer than they had after 23 matches in 2018-19 (32) and seven fewer than last term (34).
What’s next?
Both sides are in FA Cup fifth-round action during the week. Leicester are at home to Brighton on Wednesday (19:30 GMT), before Wolves host Southampton on Thursday (17:30).
Source – BBC News
