Leicester City In BIG Trouble After Remarkable Day In Premier League Relegation Battle
Leicester City's chances of dropping out of the Premier League increased dramatically on Monday.
Twenty-one goals were scored across three matches and none of the results went the way Leicester would have wanted.
The 2016 champions of England lost 5-3 at Fulham, before relegation rivals Everton and Nottingham Forest both picked up maximum points.
Leicester had started the day 16th in the table but ended it 18th after suffering their 21st league defeat of the season.
Fulham 5-3 Leicester
The Foxes were 3-0 down by half-time at Fulham after goals from Willian, Carlos Vinicius and Tom Cairney.
As the players walked off at the interval, furious Leicester fans chanted:" You're not fit to wear the shirt."
Meanwhile, former Leicester striker Gary Lineker tweeted: "Good heavens! @lcfc are going down."
Willian and Cairney scored again after the break although Leicester went on to win the second half 3-2 thanks to two goals from Harvey Barnes and a James Maddison penalty kick.
Brighton 1-5 Everton
Any positivity gained from Leicester's mini fightback was extinguished 34 seconds into Everton's game at Brighton when Abdoulaye Doucoure gave the visitors a shock lead.
Doucoure scored again in the 29th minute with a fine volley before Dwight McNeil drew an own goal out of Brighton keeper Jason Steele moments later.
McNeil then netted twice in the second half, either side of a scrappy Alexis Mac Allister consolation goal, as Everton hit five in an EPL game for the first time since September 2020.
Everton were now out of the relegation zone. So were Leicester... until Nottingham Forest completed the worst set of results possible for Dean Smith's team.
Nottingham Forest 4-3 Southampton
Taiwo Awoniyi scored two early goals against Southampton to get the City Ground rocking.
Carlos Alcaraz pulled one back for the Saints before a Morgan Gibbs-White spot-kick reestablished Forest's two-goal buffer on the stroke of half-time.
Substitute Lyanco scored his first goal for Southampton six minutes into the second period but Danilo struck at the other end to make it 4-2.
James Ward-Prowse converted a penalty kick deep into added time but it was too little, too late for his team.Â
Forest's 4-3 win effectively ended Southampton's survival bid as it left the South Coast club eight points adrift of safety with just three rounds of fixtures remaining.
It was also a terrible outcome for Leicester and Leeds as it left both clubs in the bottom three.
Bottom Five In Premier League Table (With Three Rounds Of Fixtures Remaining)
- 16. Nottingham Forest: 33 points, -31 goal difference
- 17. Everton: 32 points, -21 goal difference
- 18. Leicester City: 30 points, -15 goal difference
- 19. Leeds United: 30 points, -25 goal difference
- 20. Southampton: 24 points, -33 goal difference
Matches Left
Nottingham Forest Fixtures
- Chelsea (a)
- Arsenal (h)
- Crystal Palace (a)
Everton Fixtures
- Man City (h)
- Wolves (a)
- Bournemouth (h)
Leicester Fixtures
- Liverpool (h)
- Newcastle (a)
- West Ham (h)
Leeds Fixtures
- Newcastle (h)
- West Ham (a)
- Tottenham (h)
Southampton Fixtures
- Fulham (h)
- Brighton (a)
- Liverpool (h)