Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
TON-UP RODGERS
Foxes fight back to kill off Clarets.. and give boss Brendan his 100th win in the Prem
LEICESTER 4 Barnes 20, Pieters 50og, Justin 61, Praet 79 BURNLEY 2 Wood 80, Dunne 73 LEICESTER continued to ser ve notice of their intentions last night.
They took just nine points from their final nine games last term to blow a top-four spot.
But boss Brendan Rodgers could not have wished for a better response this season.
They won 3-0 at West Brom on opening day and yesterday fought back to put four past Burnley.
It was an impressive way for Rodgers to chalk up his 100th Premier League victory as a boss.
Burnley-born Harvey Barnes, the son of former Clarets striker Paul, was a thorn in the visitors’ side.
He cancelled out Chris Wood’s opener to make it 1-1 on 20 minutes.
Leicester then dominated much of the contest with new signing Timothy Castagne, an attacking full-back, causing havoc, forcing Erik Pieters into putting into his own net.
James Justin made it 3-1 before a Jimmy Dunne header cut Leicester’s lead.
But the hosts ran out comfortable winners with Dennis Praet’s late strike.
The last time Leicester won both their opening matches they went on to win the title in 2016.
No one is predicting a repeat, but they have stopped the rot from the last campaign and are looking up again.
Burnley displayed admirable fitness and fight in their belated curtain-raiser. But boss Sean Dyche is desperate for new recruits as his inexperienced bench underlined here.
He was missing several key players such as striker Ashley Barnes, plus defenders Ben Mee and James Tarkowski which meant a new-look backline.
Leicester made a bright start yet it was the Clarets who took the lead in the 10th minute.
Dwight Mcneil cut the ball back for Charlie Taylor to deliver a cross to the back post. Wood took the ball down well and outmuscled Justin before firing in.
The Foxes were soon level after patient play in the visitors’ box and when the ball reached Jamie Vardy at the back post, he picked out Castagne, who squared for Barnes to finish.
Barnes kept creating problems and he cut in from the right to force Nick Pope into a smart save.
Five minutes into the second half midfielder Youri Tielemans picked out fellow Belgian Castagne with a inchperfect defencesplitting pass.
His cross hit Burnley sub Pieters and wrongfooted Pope to leave the keeper helpless and Castagne (above, centre) celebrating with his team-mates.
But despite Leicester’ s dominance, Burnley continued to create chances.
Debutant Jimmy Dun ne powered in a 73 rd-minute header to halve the arrears from Mcneil’s free-kick after a James Maddison foul.
Leicester wrapped up the victory l ate on when Praet hammered in a fierce right-foot shot from the edge of the box after collecting a pass from Barnes.
Burnley kept fighting, with former Foxes striker Wood seeing a shot come back off a post, but Leicester deserved their win.