Leicester, Chelsea secure late wins in Premier League

Premier League leaders, Leicester and reigning champions, Chelsea needed winning goals in the 89th minute on Saturday to keep on track their respective campaigns for the English title and European football next season.

Leonardo Ulloa came off the bench in the 78th to score the only goal of Leicester’s home game against a Norwich side that looked to have earned a vital point in its battle against relegation.

Branislav Ivanovic headed Chelsea’s winner in a 2-1 comeback victory at Southampton, which had previously kept six consecutive clean sheets in the league.
Read also: Welbeck‘s late winner lifts Arsenal over Leicester

Elsewhere, West Ham moved up to provisional fifth place after a 1-0 win over Sunderland in the early kickoff, while Watford was held to 0-0 at home by Bournemouth, and Stoke beat bottom club Aston Villa 2-1. West Bromwich Albion edged Crystal Palace 3-2 in the late game.

Skeptics have been waiting since late last year for the bubble to burst in Leicester’s sensational season. Bottom of the standings at Christmas in 2014 and top of them at Christmas in 2015, the Midlands club was widely expected to drop points as the season wore on.

Two weeks after a 2-1 loss to Arsenal that ended a run of three consecutive wins, Leicester’s title hopes looked set to take another knock at King Power Stadium.

Leicester forwards Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez have scored more league goals than the entire Norwich team put together, with 33 to 30. But they were kept in check as Norwich played Leicester at its own game, sitting deep, and then looking to hit the opposition on the break.

The tactic worked, at least until Ulloa’s close-range strike put Claudio Ranieri’s side firmly back in the Premier League driving seat.

“You cannot always play well, it’s not important to play well or not, it’s important to take points,” Ranieri said.

“We wanted to restart. We believe in ourselves, we believe until the end that it’s important to fight. We lost a match in the last second against Arsenal, and today we won in the last minute. That’s football.”

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