Report: Foxes fight back to defeat 10-man Saints

Saints were good value for their 2-0 half-time lead, as Cameron Archer scored his second goal in two games to give Russell Martin’s men the perfect start, before Kyle Walker-Peters set up Joe Aribo to double the advantage.

Leicester struck the post shortly before half time through Bilal El Khannouss, and that proved a sign of things to come as the Foxes upped the ante in the second period, particularly after the arrival of substitute Abdul Fatawu on the hour.

Fatawu soon set up Facundo Buonanotte to give the visitors hope, before Fatawu’s far-post header was brilliantly saved by Aaron Ramsdale and miraculously cleared by Ryan Manning, only for the VAR to intervene, deeming Jamie Vardy was held back by Ryan Fraser on the goal line, who was shown a straight red card just 13 minutes after coming on.

Vardy duly lashed home the penalty before Saints hearts were broken eight minutes into stoppage time by another substitute, Jordan Ayew, whose low shot found the net from a last-gasp corner.

Martin’s only change to his starting line-up was to reward Archer with a start after the striker scored his first Premier League goal for Saints last time out at the Emirates Stadium.

The manager had stated the importance of a fast start, and that’s what his side produced from the very first whistle.

Cameron Archer celebrates his second goal in two games

Straight from kick-off Saints went long, pinning Leicester back and winning two corners in the opening five minutes.

From the second of those, Manning’s inswinging delivery was met by a thumping Aribo header that crashed against the crossbar.

As the ball bounced out, Jan Bednarek hooked it back in and Archer improvised, swivelling on the six-yard line to shoot in one motion, but just could not wrap his right foot around the ball enough to find the corner.

Archer would not have to wait long for another chance. With Walker-Peters operating in a left-sided centre-back role, space opened up for the defender to drive forward and feed Manning on the outside, whose low ball across goal was begging for a finish that Archer gleefully provided, tucking home the early opener.

Another demand from Martin has been more aggression. Perhaps Saints took that a little too literally, with Manning and Mateus Fernandes both booked inside 10 minutes, but there could be no denying the players were up for the battle.

Back came Leicester, as defenders Wout Faes and James Justin were both off target after coming forward to meet wide free-kicks, while a right-wing corner spooned over off Buonanotte, as the Foxes threatened from a series of set-pieces.

But Saints were able to absorb the pressure and pounce to double the lead on 28 minutes. Walker-Peters, involved in the first goal, was instrumental in the second, gliding away from Justin, his fellow No 2, with a stepover on the touchline and slipping along the byline to cut the ball back for Aribo, as Archer stepped over it and the Nigerian passed it into the net from eight yards.

Joe Aribo thanks Kyle Walker-Peters for his outstanding assist

Vardy might have pulled one back straightaway only to watch his header drop on to the top of the net with Ramsdale a spectator.

But Saints smelt blood and sensed an opportunity to kill the game before half time. Tyler Dibling’s exceptional pass with the outside of his boot released Yukinari Sugawara down the right, whose pull back just eluded the onrushing Archer, who perhaps took the ball away from Aribo in the process.

The hosts went even closer to a third when Sugawara hurled in a long throw flicked on by Taylor Harwood-Bellis and volleyed goalwards by Downes, who connected sweetly but sent the chance straight at goalkeeper Mads Hermansen, who scrambled to grab the ball at the second attempt after it initially squirted through his legs.

Then Dibling’s fleet of foot looked to have won a free-kick right on the edge of the box inexplicably not given by referee Anthony Taylor, who added Harwood-Bellis and Dibling to his list of carded players before the interval.

Leicester fired a timely warning shot three minutes before the break when El Khannouss whipped a 15-yard shot around Harwood-Bellis that smashed against Ramsdale’s left-hand post.

Maybe that would have put a different complexion on things, but Saints picked up where they’d left off, threatening a third goal in bizarre fashion when Faes threw himself at a Fernandes cross and forced Hermansen, his own keeper, into a stunning reflex save.

Leicester had not really offered anything since the restart until a double salvo in the 57th minute, with shining light Buonanotte, signed on loan from Brighton, at the heart of it.

The Argentinian threaded a clever pass through for Vardy, who stepped away from Walker-Peters to open up the space to shoot, only for Fernandes to fly in the way of the strike with a tremendous last-ditch block.

A matter of seconds later, Buonanotte went for goal himself with a curling effort from 25 yards that just sailed inches wide of Ramsdale’s upright with the keeper at full stretch.

Martin reacted to Leicester’s second change with his first, as Fraser replaced the hobbling Sugawara, before Dibling teased the left side of the Leicester defence, slowing down to a gentle jog and suddenly darting inside, drilling a low shot that required good hands from Hermansen down to his left.

St Mary's celebrates Saints' second

Instead of 3-0, it was back to 2-1 when Leicester immediately pulled one back through Buonanotte.

Fatawu, whose introduction brought rapturous applause from the corner of away fans, beat Fraser to the byline and crossed low for Buonanotte to turn it in from close range.

Further Saints substitutions followed with the return from injury of Will Smallbone and the arrival of Paul Onuachu, back at St Mary’s for the first time in two seasons.

But Martin’s men were not able to arrest the slide, as a controversial penalty award completely changed the game’s complexion.

Super-sub Fatawu went close to finding the top corner with a carbon copy of Buonanotte’s curler, as this time Leicester struck the bar, but the visitors kept the ball alive.

After Ramsdale made a miraculous save to keep out Fatawu’s downward header at the far post, Manning made an equally impressive clearance to somehow thwart Vardy on the line.

But as St Mary’s awaited the ensuing corner, referee Taylor was sent to his pitchside monitor to observe an alleged tug from Fraser on Vardy.

Ultimately, Taylor’s verdict was that the minimal contact was sufficient to stop Vardy getting to the ball first, thus preventing a certain goal, as Fraser was sent off and Vardy buried the spot-kick in trademark fashion with 74 minutes on the clock.

Martin’s final changes were to introduce Charlie Taylor and Kamaldeen Sulemana, whose electrifying pace could offer Saints an out ball on the counter-attack.

It nearly came to fruition when Onuachu’s flick-on released the substitute, but Faes was able to get across and block his shot as the all-standing Northam Stand longed for a winner in the first of seven added minutes.

Buonanotte was inches away from winning it himself before Ayew struck the decisive blow beyond the allotted time, peeling off the Saints defence to find the bottom corner as Harry Winks’s low delivery outfoxed the hosts.

Southampton: Ramsdale, Sugawara (Fraser 61), Harwoood-Bellis, Bednarek, Walker-Peters, Manning (Taylor 78), Downes (c), Aribo, Fernandes (Smallbone 68), Dibling (Kamaldeen 78), Archer (Onuachu 68).

Unused substitutes: McCarthy, Ugochukwu, Lallana, Armstrong.

Goals: Archer (8’), Aribo (28’).

Booked: Manning, Fernandes, Harwood-Bellis, Dibling, Sugawara.

Red card: Fraser.

Leicester: Hermansen, Justin, Faes, Okoli, Kristiansen (Fatawu 59), Ndidi, Skipp (Winks 45), Buonanotte, El Khannouss (Ayew 68), Mavididi (De Cordova-Reid 88), Vardy (c).

Unused substitutes: Ward, Coady, Ricardo, Soumaré, Édouard.

Goals: Buonanotte (65’), Vardy (74’ pen), Ayew (90+8’).

Booked: Vardy, Buonanotte, Winks.

Referee: Anthony Taylor.

Attendance: 31,145.