Winless Southampton stunned by thrilling Leicester fightback


Leicester scored three second-half goals to come from behind and stun 10-player Southampton, denying them a first Premier League win of the season after a gripping 3-2 success at St Mary’s.

The result means Saints have set a club record for the longest winless run in their entire top-flight history, having failed to emerge victorious from any of their last 21 Premier League encounters.

Inside five minutes, Joe Aribo had crashed a header onto the crossbar and inside seven minutes, the hosts had taken the lead. Kyle Walker-Peters led the charge after a quick free-kick and dropped the ball off to Ryan Manning, who squared for Cameron Archer to coolly slot in and send a wave of both relief and belief around St Mary’s.

Aribo finished off a similar move, with Walker-Peters the architect, to double the lead before the half-hour and Saints flew out of the traps after the break, looking to finish off the job in order to take their foot off the pedal somewhat.

Leicester still had not had a shot on target by the hour, so three points were within their grasp. Until they weren’t any more.

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Southampton have not won a single one of their eight Premier League matches so far

Abdul Fatawu had a near-immediate impact, getting to the byline and hanging a ball up that Facundo Buonanotte helped in at the far post. Then, he rattled the crossbar with a shot from distance and tested Aaron Ramsdale shortly after the ball was kept in play.

However, VAR spotted that, after the save, Ryan Fraser had held back Jamie Vardy and denied him a goalscoring opportunity. Anthony Taylor went to the monitor and returned soon after, with a red card for Fraser and a penalty award to Leicester.

Last-gasp Leicester make club history

  • Leicester City won after being 2+ goals down at half-time in a Premier League game for the first time ever, drawing seven and losing 56 of the previous 63 games where they found themselves two down at the break.
  • Jordan Ayew’s winner, on ninety-seven minutes and 34 seconds, was Leicester’s latest Premier League winner on record (since 2006-07) and the latest winner Southampton ever conceded in the competition on record.

Vardy slammed home the spot-kick to level the game and, from there, Saints were, understandably deflated. It looked as though they would hold on for a point, but with one of the final kicks of the game, Jordan Ayew was found unmarked at a corner.

He squeezed a shot past Ramsdale and into the bottom right corner to spark a chorus of boos and a mass exodus from the home fans.

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