While although Leicester were celebrating their F.A. Cup success long into Saturday night, any party that followed their Wembley achievements was always going to risk becoming a Premier League hangover.
Something that has now proved to be the case and with the Foxes being hunted down by both Chelsea and Liverpool in the race for Champions League qualification, Brendan Rodgers will now have a keen eye on events at Turf Moor on Wednesday night.
Because if one of his former employers can get the better of Burnley, it will mean Liverpool will snare fourth place with just one round of the Premier League season to go and if that proves to be the case, it will only compound Leicester’s Stamford Bridge misery further.
In a game played behind the welcome backdrop of fan support, Chelsea certainly had a point to prove and you could tell by the way that they came out of the traps, that revenge was on the mind of Thomas Tuchel and his players.
Revenge they thought they may have found in the first half and were it not for a lack of penalty decision from referee Mike Dean, the Blues may well have found themselves going into the interval ahead.
Of course, the blame cannot squarely lie at the man in the middle and some of it will need to be placed on Chelsea’s man at the sharpest end of the pitch, as Timo Werner once again had a frustrating night in attack.
The former RB Leipzig forward had the ball in Leicester’s net twice in the first 45 minutes and although there were passionate celebrations each time, they were short-lived due to being offside and a handball, respectively.
Two decisions in Leicester’s favour and if there was a feeling that they were riding their luck, their luck would run out soon after the interval, as Antonio Rudiger finally broke the resolve of the 2021 F.A. Cup winners.
The German defender was left unmarked in the box to head home and after giving Chelsea a deserved lead two minutes after the restart, his international teammate would win the hosts a rather contentious penalty.
This time a decision would go in favour of Werner and although it did not look like a penalty after Wesley Fofana made a tackle on the edge of his area, Andre Marriner acting as the VAR official certainly felt it was.
From 12 yards Jorginho rarely misses and there was nothing but the net as the Italian midfielder casually stroked the ball past Kasper Schmeichel. While in doing so, he subsequently doubled Chelsea’s advantage in front of a rapturous crowd.
A crowd that would be silenced momentarily, as Leicester substitute Kelechi Iheanacho got his side back into the game with a well-taken finish and although Brendan Rodgers would have hoped for a grandstand finish, the only thing he witnessed was a late pitch side scuffle.
Which meant Chelsea earned three incredibly important points in the context of the top-four race and most importantly for them, qualification for next season’s Champions League is very much in their own hands. While not forgetting, they appear in this year’s final next Saturday evening.
