Leicester City 3 Aston Villa 2: Ranieri´s men remain unbeaten with dramatic comeback

Leicester City mounted a stunning comeback to beat Aston Villa 3-2 and maintain their unbeaten start to the Premier League season.

The visitors looked to be coasting at the King Power Stadium after excellent strikes from Jack Grealish and Carles Gil put them two goals to the good.

But Claudio Ranieri’s side scored three times in the final 18 minutes to climb to second in the table, with Ritchie De Laet, Jamie Vardy and Nathan Dyer on target.

Debutant Dyer’s winning effort – a brave header under pressure from Brad Guzan and Alan Hutton – left the Swansea City loanee floored, though he did pick himself up to finish the match.

Leicester are now nine top-flight games unbeaten, while Tim Sherwood’s Villa sit 15th, having earned just four points from their opening five matches.
 
The hosts – for whom Gokhan Inler made his first start – quickly penned Villa back inside their own half, but an error from Robert Huth brought about a change in momentum, handing the visitors a great opportunity inside eight minutes.
 
Gil sent the German’s stray pass straight into the path of Gabriel Agbonlahor, but Scott Sinclair could not convert from his square ball at the back post.
 
Leicester responded well, with Wes Morgan rising above Jordan Amavi to nod a free-kick over the top moments later.
 
The hosts’ early pressure subsided and Sherwood’s men looked dangerous when attacking down their left, though crosses from Agbonlahor and Amavi did not result in anything to worry Kasper Schmeichel.
 
The Dane was finally called into action in the 24th minute, with Gil blocking an attempted pass from Jeffrey Schlupp and racing down the right.
 
He then cut inside and teed up Grealish, who sent a tame effort straight down the middle and into Schmeichel’s arms.
 
However, the 20-year-old made no mistake at the second time of asking, curling home a stunning effort six minutes before the interval after a scramble in the Leicester box.

Within three minutes of the restart the hosts nearly restored parity, with Vardy’s flick from a Schlupp cross trickling just wide of the near post.

The momentum quickly swung in Leicester’s favour and it took a clearance from debutant Joleon Lescott to divert Riyad Mahrez’s effort behind for a corner.

And Ranieri’s charges were made to rue their missed chances in the 64th minute as Gil bent a sublime strike into the top corner following Agbonlahor’s bursting run down the left.

Leicester were aggrieved not to have been awarded a penalty 20 minutes from time as Leandro Bacuna felled Vardy, but those concerns vanished when De Laet flicked the ball into the back of the net from the resultant corner, Ashley Westwood’s attempt to keep it out on the line proving fruitless.

And the equaliser came 10 minutes later, with Vardy converting from Danny Drinkwater’s low cross into the centre of the box.

The hosts then stepped up their push for a winner and with one minute of normal time remaining it came as second-half substitute Dyer found the back of the net with a courageous header.