Unai Emery, Arsenal Lose to Jamie Vardy, Leicester City Amid Struggles

Leicester City beat Arsenal 2-0 to go second in the Premier League on Saturday, with their fourth consecutive win. 

Jamie Vardy broke the deadlock in the 68th minute after a goalless first half in the driving rain at the King Power Stadium. He turned provider for James Maddison seven minutes later.

Arsenal have now won just one of their last six league games and are nine points behind the Foxes and eight outside the top four.

On another day, Leicester might have had an early penalty when Matteo Guendouzi pulled Caglar Soyuncu's shoulder during a Ben Chilwell free-kick:

The Gunners should have been in front five minutes later when the ball fell to Alexandre Lacazette close to goal after a neat team move between Mesut Ozil and Hector Bellerin, but the Frenchman lofted his shot wide.

At the other end, Vardy was inches away from connecting with a dangerous Ayoze Perez cross.

The chance was emblematic of the first half, in which both sides showed plenty of threatening intent but didn't quite manage to find the cutting edge needed to break the deadlock.

Minutes after the restart, Leicester spurned a golden chance to go ahead when Wilfred Ndidi—with time and space in the penalty area—rattled the crossbar with a first-time shot from Ricardo Pereira's cut-back.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang had the ball in the net soon after, but the Gabon striker was well offside when he tucked home Ozil's low cross.

Vardy finally opened the scoring after an incisive move involving Pereira, Harvey Barnes and Youri Tielemans carved open the visitors:

The striker almost doubled his tally minutes later when he was slipped in by Demarai Gray, but Bernd Leno was equal to his powerful strike.

Seven minutes later, he teed up Maddison for a powerful, low strike from the edge of the area that put the game out of Arsenal's reach.

James Sharpe of the Mail on Sunday hailed the Foxes, while the Mirror's Darren Lewis was critical of the Gunners:

Gunners boss Unai Emery introduced Nicolas Pepe and Joe Willock as they attempted to find a way back into the match, but they scarcely had a chance as Leicester comfortably controlled the remainder of the contest.

What's Next

Arsenal host Southampton on November 23, while Leicester travel to Brighton & Hove Albion on the same day.