Leicester 4 Burnley 2: Foxes new boy Castagne stars again as fellow full-back Justin scores first Premier League goal
Sponsored by
BRENDAN RODGERS celebrated reaching a century of Premier League wins by leading Leicester City to the top of the Premier League.
The Foxes fell behind to an early Chris Wood opener but the home side’s class told in the end as they came out on top of a six-goal-thriller to entertain terrestrial viewers, watching on the Beeb.
Sir Alex Ferguson, Sir Kenny Dalglish and Kevin Keegan are the only Brit bosses to have achieved the feat in fewer matches.
And Rodgers will feel his side have rediscovered their mojo after a disappointing end to last season.
However with a European campaign to contend with, Leicester have been busy this summer and look to be going from strength to strength.
Rodgers prep included adding Turkish international winger Cengiz Under to his already impressive squad and penning his new boy’s name on the wall charts in his office.
The 23-year-old arrived from Roma on a season-long-loan and a provisional £22million price-tag should the Foxes decide to take up their option to buy at the end of this season.
Business complete, Rodgers’ next task was deciding whether to throw fit-again England midfielder James Maddison and title-winning captain Wes Morgan in to freshen up the team which thumped West Brom 3-0 last week!
Talk about First World problems!
Sean Dyche would never admit it but he must have felt a pang of jealousy as he weighed up his own limited options.
Denied James Tarkowski - yet another player linked with a move to Leicester - due to a troublesome toe injury, Dyche dipped into his modest squad and handed a Premier League debut to 22-year-old Jimmy Dunne.
The Dundalk youngster had one thing in common with Jamie Vardy, the Golden Boot winner he was tasked with marking. Both were Fleetwood Town old boys - and both know how to find the net as the kid scored to mark a brilliant debut!
Dyche has yet to trouble the transfer market but the Clarets are still capable of dishing out a few bloody noses.
That’s precisely what they delivered to Leicester after 10 minutes when they stunned the home side by taking the lead in controversial circumstances.
Kiwi striker Wood carved his name in Burnley history by adding to the three goals he scored at the end of last season - to become the first Clarets player to score in four successive Premier League matches.
He drifted onto the shoulder of young James Justin at the back post and was ready and waiting when Charlie Taylor’s booming cross arrived from the opposite flank.
Wood’s superiority in the air allowed him to chest the ball, which then bounced off Justin’s head.
As the ball dropped Wood blatantly shoved Justin over as the ball bobbled off his arm, before cheating it down and firing it beyond Kasper Schmeichel.
Leicester argued for handball, but VAR confirmed the new ‘T-shirt,’ rule meant Wood was in the clear. They would have been better pointing out the blatant shove which knocked Justin off balance and sent him to the floor.
However who is complaining? After all, that contentious moment set us off on a sumptuous goal-fest.
Leicester responded through Harvey Barnes, who clearly took Brendan Rodgers advice to heart that he could break into the England squad if he added more goals to his game.
The winger started and finished a sublime Leicester move as he took the advice to heart.
Barnes picked out Vardy with a brilliant diagonal pass and the striker spun in the box to leave Dunne and Taylor in a tangled heap on the deck.
Vardy laid it off to Timothy Castagne who rolled the ball across goal where Barnes had continued his run to side-foot the ball past Nick Pope.
It was full-blooded stuff, not for the faint-hearted, as Jay Rodriguez and Papys Mendy picked up deserved bookings for some wild tackles.
However Leicester stepped up a gear after the break to run out deserved winners.
Burnley’s cause wasn’t helped when Robbie Brady limped off just before half-time.
His replacement Erik Pieters had the misfortune to divert a low centre from Castagne which flew off his toe to leave Pope beaten and bewildered five minutes after the restart.
Most read in Football
Then Justin gained revenge for Wood’s opener when he made it 3-1 with a simple tap-in after Ayoze Perez mesmerised the Burnley defence with his close control to set up the former Luton man for his first Premier goal.
READ MORE SUN STORIES
Leicester sent on Maddison for Perez but it was Burnley who battled back to reduce the lead to a single goal again as debut boy Dunne rose above Justin to head home a Dwight McNeil free kick.
But Burnley’s hopes of snatching a point disappeared 11 minutes from time when Barnes set up Praet and the Belgian teed up a rocket shot from 20 yards to leave Pope helpless as it ripped into his net.
