Arsenal’s top-four hopes suffer another huge blow after defeat at Leicester

Arsenals Champions League hopes suffered a serious blow after the 10-man Gunners went down to a disastrous 3-0 defeat at Leicester.Unai Emerys side slipped to a third straight loss and missed the chance to climb back into the Premier Leagues top four.Jamie Vardy continued his hot streak against the Gunners with his late brace making it eight goals in his last nine games against them.Jamie Vardy scored twice in the victory over Arsenal (David Davies/PA)Youri Tielemans opened the scoring after Ainsley Maitland-Niles first-half dismissal.Arsenal, who remain fifth, were second best all afternoon and needed Bernd Leno to keep the score down with fine saves from Vardy and Ricardo Pereira.Victory also allowed Brendan Rodgers revenge over Unai Emery after Emerys Paris St Germain beat Rodgers Celtic 7-1 and 5-0 in the Champions League last season.Impressive Leicester climbed to eighth, three points behind Wolves in seventh which may still give them a route to Europe.Leicester City 3Arsenal 0The scenes pic.twitter.com/EEO41eVJX8 Leicester City (@LCFC) April 28, 2019From the start the hosts dominated as Jonny Evans headed straight at Leno before James Maddisons effort was deflected wide inside the first 10 minutes.Maddison and Tielemans impressed and created space to exploit with the former dragging wide from the edge of the box.Arsenal had barely threatened but Alexandre Lacazette volleyed Alex Iwobis cross just wide from 12 yards after 23 minutes.The Foxes, though, were far sharper, grittier and dynamic than the visitors leaving abject Arsenal relying on Lenos reflexes to stay level. The previously quiet Vardy slipped in Maddison and Leno shovelled his low effort behind and, from the resulting corner, the goalkeeper turned Wilfred Ndidis header away.Leicester were getting closer and Vardy lobbed over following Marc Albrightons pinpoint pass after 32 minutes.Passive Arsenal had barely woken up for the early kick-off yet they created the best chance in the 35th minute.The previously anonymous Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang slipped in Iwobi and he fired at Kasper Schmeichels legs with just the goalkeeper to beat.Ainsley Maitland-Niles was sent off for a second booking (David Davies/PA)But a minute later the Gunners afternoon continued to go downhill when Maitland-Niles was dismissed for the first time in his career.Already on a yellow card for an early foul on Ben Chilwell, the midfielder flew into a late challenge with Maddison and was sent off.With the initiative Leicester pressed again and Lenos excellent low stop denied Vardy an opener three minutes before half time.Harvey Barnes replaced Ndidi at the break as Leicester looked to go on the offensive while the visitors introduced Laurent Koscielny for Iwobi.Unai Emery has overseen three consecutive defeats (Peter Byrne/PA)A Foxes breakthrough seemed inevitable given their dominance and it finally came after 59 minutes.Leicesters final ball had been poor before Maddison produced a sumptuous cross which Tielemans met on the run to nod into the bottom corner from 10 yards.It was all the hosts deserved and it meant Arsenal have kept two clean sheets in their last 28 top-flight away games.They would have conceded more had it not been for Leno though as, after he watched Tielemans curl inches wide with 18 minutes left, he was at full stretch to save from Pereira and Barnes in quick succession. Youri Tielemans takes his tally to 3 #PL goalsLeicester 1-0 Arsenal (64 mins) #LEIARS pic.twitter.com/bkQhRVEgRe Premier League (@premierleague) April 28, 2019But Vardy netted with four minutes left when he latched onto Schmeichels long free-kick and headed in from six yards after his lob over Leno hit the bar.The former England striker then made it 3-0 with the final kick, tapping in Pereiras cross from close range.(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i['GoogleAnalyticsObject']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){
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