Leicester City 3-1 Arsenal: Ten-man Gunners remain without away league point in 2018

Leicester City beat 10-man Arsenal 3-1 at the King Power as Arsene Wenger's side remained the only team without an away point in English league football in 2018.

Leicester opened the scoring after just 14 minutes thanks to Kelechi Iheanacho's second league goal of the season, before the striker was then brought down by Konstantinos Mavropanos when clean through on goal.

The young Greek defender was shown a straight red card by referee Graham Scott, Arsenal's 78th sending-off in the Premier League under Wenger, only for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to level matters eight minutes after half-time.

However, the home team took all three points thanks to Jamie Vardy's 76th-minute penalty - the striker's sixth goal in seven games against the Gunners - and Riyad Mahrez's last-minute effort.

As a result, the Foxes stay ninth in the table thanks to a first top-flight win in six matches, while Arsenal remain sixth after a seventh straight league defeat on their travels for the first time since January 1966.

Arsenal started the match on the front foot, only to fall behind just before the quarter-hour mark after the visitors failed to clear a left-wing corner.

The Foxes recycled the ball, before finding Fousseni Diabate at the far post and the midfielder then picked out Iheanacho, who drove the ball past Petr Cech from close range.

Iheanacho was also the player involved in Mavropanos's dismissal as right from the re-start, the striker closed the centre back down, before stealing possession and being hauled to the ground as he broke clear.

The referee had little choice but to send off the 20-year-old, with there being just 92 seconds between Iheanacho's opener and the red card.

The visitors, though, drew level when Aubameyang scored his ninth league goal since joining the club in January after good approach play by down the right by Ainsley Maitland-Niles.

But it was Claude Puel's team who emerged victorious after two goals in the final quarter of an hour, the first coming from the penalty spot after Henrikh Mkhitaryan tripped substitute Demarai Gray in the box.

Vardy kept his cool to rifle the ball home from the spot, the England international's 18th league goal of the season, before Mahrez sealed the points late on after dummying Cech and scoring into an empty net as the Foxes beat Arsenal for the first time in the league since 1994.

Match stats

• Wenger suffered his first defeat against Leicester in all competitions in what was his 23rd meeting with the Foxes (P23 W14 D8 L1)
• The Gunners have now lost 11 Premier League games on the road this season equalling their highest number of away defeats in a single campaign (also 11 in 1994/95) and are the only side across the top four tiers of English football yet to pick up an away point in 2018 (P7 W0 D0 L7)
• Arsenal have conceded 50+ goals in a single campaign for the first time in the Premier League and for the first time in the top-flight since 1983-84 (60), which was also the last time they finished 6th
• Since his Premier League debut in August 2014, Vardy has scored 24 goals against the big six sides - four more than any other player during this period (Sergio Aguero, 20)
• Since making his Premier League debut, only Mohamed Salah (12) has scored more goals in the competition than Aubameyang (nine)

Mangers

Claude Puel: "The most important thing is the spirit, pressing and conviction. It was a great performance. They gave their best and it was important to finish (at home) with a strong game.

"They played with strong conviction and quality. Beating [Arsenal manager] Arsene [Wenger] is not important for me.

"It's a good feeling to win our last home game of the season. The players wanted to reward the fans tonight, they put in place all the ingredients to win."

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Arsene Wenger: "I felt we played with great spirit and we were unlucky to play with 10 men and to be caught with a non-penalty. Overall, though, there was enough room for us to win the game, so I would like to praise the spirit of my team tonight, even if we lost the game.

"Even with 10 against 11 we looked like we could score at any moment and at 1-1 we had two situations with three against two, but we complicated a bit our game.

"We had the chances to score and win the game. The fact that we had to chase the game with 10 men made it very open.

"I would like to say that this team has shown tonight they have a future and hopefully they can show that next season."

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Man of the Match - Kelechi Iheanacho

The powerful striker has not had many chances to stake a claim up front since joining Leicester from Man City for £25m in August.

However, the Nigeria international was given an opportunity against Arsenal, and he did not disappoint with an impressive attacking display.

The 21-year-old opened the scoring with an excellent first-half finish, before being involved in the pivotal moment when Mavropanos was dismissed for bringing the frontman down seconds later.

And maybe now the player will be given more regular game time going forward at the King Power.

What's next?

Leicester take on third-palced Tottenham Hotspur at Wembley Stadium on the final day of the season.

Meanwhile, Arsenal face already-safe Huddersfield Town at the John Smith's Stadium on Sunday afternoon in what will be manager Arsene Wenger's final game in charge of the club.

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