Lackluster Leicester held at Boro
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TROUBLED champion Leicester City was held to a turgid 0-0 draw at Middlesbrough yesterday to edge further clear of the English Premier League relegation zone.
Leonardo Ulloa missed the visitors’ best chance when he headed a Christian Fuchs corner straight at Brad Guzan in the 69th minute, although the Foxes were largely toothless without strikers Islam Slimani and Jamie Vardy, who was serving the final match of his three-game suspension.
Middlesbrough, now 16th on 19 points, threatened through Adama Traore, the game’s outstanding player, but he struggled to find an end product to accompany his scintillating work out wide. Boro’s Gaston Ramirez fired an 83rd-minute effort into the side netting.
Leicester kept consecutive clean sheets for the first time since April but the champion, which moved seven points clear of the drop zone ahead of the matches later in the day, is still awaiting its first away win of the season.
The Foxes have now gone 12 away games without victory in the EPL, stretching back to the 2-0 win at Sunderland last April that nudged them closer to their fairytale title win.
With both teams having played on New Year’s Eve — Leicester edging West Ham United 1-0, Boro cruelly beaten 1-2 at Manchester United — they each made five changes to their starting XIs at the Riverside Stadium.
In later EPL games, it was: Everton vs Southampton; Manchester City vs Burnley; Sunderland vs Liverpool; West Bromwich Albion vs Hull City; and West Ham United vs Manchester United.
On Sunday, Olivier Giroud scored a stupendous “scorpion kick” volley as Arsenal climbed to third place in the EPL table with a 2-0 home victory over Crystal Palace.
Giroud netted with a breathtaking improvised strike reminiscent of Henrikh Mkhitaryan’s recent goal for Manchester United and Alex Iwobi was also on target at the Emirates Stadium.
A bashful Giroud told the BBC: “It is not difficult to say it is the best one. I was a bit lucky, but it was the only thing I could do. The ball was behind me and I tried to hit it with a backheel.”
Victory left Arsenal nine points below leader Chelsea and it was joined in the top four by Tottenham Hotspur, which replaced Manchester City in the UEFA Champions League places after winning 4-1 at Watford. Liverpool is second on 43 points, six behind Chelsea
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