secured a hat trick. (Photograph courtesy of Kirill Venediktov)
On March 4, 1995, President Clinton was in his first term of office, Madonna was top of the charts with Take A Bow and over half of the Leicester City starting XI that played against Southampton on Friday night had not yet been born.
That was the last time a team had won by a margin of nine goals in the top flight of English football – Manchester United beating Ipswich Town 9-0. Peter Schmeichel was the goalkeeper for United that day, his son Kasper tending the net for Leicester as they equalled United’s goal tally at St. Mary’s Stadium. In truth, neither had many saves to make as their teams dominated.
Leicester made a quick start. Southampton keeper Angus Gunn could only parry Harvey Barnes’ tenth-minute shot into the path of Ben Chilwell, who made a storming forward run from the left-back position. It was only the second Leicester goal for the England international developed by the club, and he celebrated it in style.
The pain of the goal was compounded when the VAR spotted a poor challenge on Ayoze Perez by Ryan Bertrand in the build up to the goal. Bertrand’s challenge was high, slipping over the ball on this wet night on the south coast. It was lucky not to cause serious injury to Perez, and Bertrand deserved his retrospective red card.
After their red card, Southampton folded. Youri Tiele- mans, Jamie Vardy and two goals from Ayoze Perez ensured that Leicester went into the half-time break leading by five goals to nil. Perez’s second was the best of the lot as he rifled the ball into the roof of the net after a looping back-post cross by Chilwell.
The half-time instructions from Southampton manager Ralph Hasenhuttl must have been clear: avoid further embarrassment. Unfortunately for those following the Saints, they did not. Perez scored to com- plete his hat-trick, Vardy netted a second and James Maddison got in on the act too, scoring a beautiful free-kick into the top corner from 25 yards out.
Leicester didn’t stop at eight — a penalty was awarded in the dying embers of the game as Jan Bednarek clumsily pulled Vardy over as he rushed into the pen- alty area. Vardy himself took the penalty and easily dispatched it.
Southampton were humiliated in front of their own fans.
Over 28,000 people made the trip to see this match, many of them coming straight from work on a damp, cold Friday night, most of them wanting to see a Southampton victory. They were embarrassed by how poorly their team performed — and many want to see the back of manager Hasenhuttl soon.
Elsewhere in the Premier League, Arsenal crumbled to a 2-2 draw at home to Crystal Palace after leading 2-0 in the first half. This game will be remembered for Arsenal fans booing captain Granit Xhaka, and Xhaka’s visibly irritated reaction. Many Arsenal fans are disgruntled with Xhaka and believe he doesn’t deserve the captaincy, but he has the full support of manager Unai Emery.
Manchester United also registered their first league win since Sep. 14, beating Norwich 3-1 at Carrow Road. Liverpool ensured Spurs’ miserable start to the Premier League season continued, beating them 2-1 and condemning Spurs to 11th in the table, one place behind fellow London rivals West Ham United.