Chelsea effectively secured a third-place finish despite failing to capitalise on a dominant performance as they drew 1-1 with Leicester.
The Blues, defeated by Liverpool on penalties in Saturday’s FA Cup final, fell behind when James Maddison curled home a stunning finish in the early stages but it proved to be one of only two Leicester shots in a one-sided game.
Chelsea equalised when Marcos Alonso, who was guilty of slack defending in the build-up to Leicester’s opener, rifled home a lofted cross from fellow wing-back Reece James in the first half.
But they could not find a way past Kasper Schmeichel after that as they endured another frustrating night at Stamford Bridge, where they have only won eight Premier League games out of 18 this season.https://imasdk.googleapis.com/js/core/bridge3.516.0_en.html#goog_175854503
Christian Pulisic spurned their best chance, missing an open goal from a Romelu Lukaku centre in the second half, and while the draw puts them three points clear of Tottenham, all but clinching third thanks to their vastly superior goal difference, it was a disappointing result for Thomas Tuchel and his players.
Chelsea started brightly and went close to opening the scoring after four minutes when Hakim Ziyech span away from Daniel Amartey and fired a long-range effort just past the post.
Leicester were struggling to get out of their own half but soon they were ahead, Alonso’s dithering allowing Timothy Castagne to latch onto Schmeichel’s long pass and release a cut-back which deflected into the path of Maddison.
Maddison ran onto the loose ball unopposed, then shimmied away from Thiago Silva before curling a delightful finish inside Edouard Mendy’s left-hand post from outside the Chelsea box.
The goal silenced the home fans but Chelsea continued to dominate possession and territory and went close to equalising a few minutes later when a powerful long-range effort from Trevoh Chalobah was acrobatically saved by Schmeichel.
There was an opening for Romelu Lukaku, starting a fourth consecutive game for the first time since February, but he took too long to get his shot off following N’Golo Kante’s interception and pass, allowing Amartey to get back and make the block.
Instead it was left to Alonso to bring Chelsea level, the Spaniard redeeming his earlier error when he slammed home James’ angled cross on the volley for his fourth Premier League goal of the season.
