Premier League 2019-20: 3 reasons why Arsenal lost to Leicester City

After failing to defeat Portuguese side Vitoria SC in their midweek Europa League match, it was another match of frustration for Arsenal today as they slumped to a 2-0 defeat to Leicester City at the King Power Stadium.

Unai Emery made numerous changes from that match in midweek; Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Mesut Ozil, Alexandre Lacazette and Matteo Guendouzi were all restored to the first XI, but it largely made no difference. Arsenal were basically second-best in all areas today, and it came as no surprise when the Foxes finally broke them down.

First Jamie Vardy scored his 11th goal of the season in the 68th minute, finishing off a beautiful move from Harvey Barnes and Youri Tielemans. And then James Maddison sealed the deal seven minutes later.

Here are three reasons why Arsenal lost to Leicester City.

#1 Leicester have been building up a head of steam lately

Leicester have become an outstanding side under Brendan Rodgers

Before slating Arsenal it’s probably fair to say that they were up against one of the Premier League’s most outstanding sides this evening. Leicester are now up into second place in the league table and have a better goal difference - +21 – than any side other than Manchester City.

Brendan Rodgers has got them playing some phenomenal football, and this game was no exception.

The Foxes simply took the game to Arsenal from the off, and could probably have had a couple of goals in the first half through James Maddison, Ayoze Perez and Harvey Barnes. Perez in particular narrowly failed to capitalize on a real defensive mess from the Gunners when David Luiz missed a loose pass.

When Wilfred Ndidi struck the bar early in the second half it felt for a moment like Leicester would be out of luck. But they kept plugging away and eventually found the net twice, through Vardy and Maddison. Both moves that led to the goals saw Arsenal’s defence carved open.

Leicester are riding a crest of a wave right now; on paper at least they appear to have no weaknesses, and their results on the pitch are beginning to suggest the same thing. If anyone is going to make the Premier League title race a three-horse one, it appears to be them.

Arsenal’s profile may be bigger, but they can have few complaints in losing to this side.

#2 Arsenal look rudderless under Emery

The return of Mesut Ozil to Arsenal's starting line-up didn't help them

Unai Emery is perhaps the most under-fire Premier League boss right now, but it’s hard to see how the criticism of the Spaniard is unfair. Wednesday’s Europa League match saw them score with their lone attempt on target, but today they repeated that statistic and were unable to find a breakthrough – which was hardly surprising.

Their closest attempt was probably a bizarre moment in the first half that saw the ball bobbling around in the area before Alexandre Lacazette poked wide. Outside of that they looked devoid of creativity; Mesut Ozil and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang didn’t seem to improve the Gunners, and the defense continued to make needless errors in their passing.

It feels like Emery has thrown everything he’s got at this project now. He’s changed players, changed formations and systems, and blooded the club’s younger talent, and yet the Gunners are now eight points adrift from the top four and haven’t won a league match since 6 October.

With rumours of the club making a move for Jose Mourinho, perhaps it is indeed time for a change at the Emirates.

#3 Dropping Pepe was a mistake

The decision to drop Nicolas Pepe after his strong performance midweek was baffling

While you could question many of Emery’s decisions recently – the furore over Granit Xhaka’s appointment and then removal as club captain continues – perhaps the most baffling one today was his choice to move record signing Nicolas Pepe to the substitute’s bench.

Sure, Pepe hasn’t hit the ground running as some might’ve hoped, but the Frenchman is clearly a talent and he’s slowly been improving over the past few games.

Against Vitoria SC on Wednesday it was Pepe's flawless free-kick that set up Shkodran Mustafi’s headed goal. And while Emery’s decision to switch to a 3-5-2 system today may have been driven by a wish to nullify the influence of Leicester’s outstanding full-back pairing of Ben Chilwell and Ricardo Pereira, sticking to a 3-4-3 in order to slot Pepe in surely would’ve been a smarter idea - especially if the plan was to catch the Foxes on the break.

Pepe did make an appearance from the bench, but giving him just 14 minutes in the game – with Arsenal already a goal down – was probably never going to work. It feels like Emery just doesn’t know what his best team is at the moment, which is highly worrying. And to remove Pepe, who has arguably been his best player lately, seemed like an insane decision.