Gabriel Martinelli’s goal, right at the start of the second half, was enough to earn all three points from a dominant, if not full-flowing, performance at the King Power Stadium.
The Brazilian – back into the starting line-up – latched onto a wonderful Leandro Trossard pass before squeezing his shot home.
Trossard himself thought he had given us the lead in the first half, only for the goal to be ruled out for a foul on the goalkeeper after a VAR review.
It was a well-deserved win, on an afternoon when we restricted the home side to just one shot, and takes us five points clear at the top, before Man City’s game later in the day.
Early control
We were straight on the front foot. Martin Odegaard – who had lent his captain’s armband to Oleksandr Zinchenko for the afternoon, on the first anniversary of the invasion of his homeland Ukraine – lifted a shot over the bar inside the first minute.
Granit Xhaka and Bukayo Saka soon both had shots charged down. Xhaka’s opportunity was more than just a half chance.
We were dominating possession. A wonderful Jorginho pass released Saka, but he was crowded out inside the box. He had a bit more space to work in moments later, but this time his shot was well off target, as he aimed for the top corner.
Saka was seeing plenty of the ball, but his shooting radar was off-kilter.
Disallowed goal
We were controlling the game and it looked as though we had broken the deadlock after 25 minutes. A corner fell to Leandro Trossard outside the box and he curled a beauty into the top corner.
However, after a VAR review, the magnificent strike was disallowed for a foul by Ben White on goalkeeper Danny Ward.
Leicester’s threat came from the counterattack, and they outnumbered us three against two after winning the ball on the edge of their own box, but we regrouped in time to snuff out the danger.
Despite our dominance, we couldn’t test Ward, and Gabriel Martinelli fired wide from a narrow-angle late in the half.
Martinelli’s matchwinner
After a frustrating first half, we got the second period off to the perfect start. Trossard fed a superb nutmeg pass into the advancing Martinelli, and the Brazilian threaded his shot just inside the far post.
It was a pinpoint finish, and he also got fouled in the process but was able to run off the injury. It was our first shot on target of the afternoon.
Martinelli then fed Saka inside the box for a tap-in, but the offside flag denied us our second.
We continued pressing. Zinchenko’s 20-yard effort was parried away before Odegaard hit a free kick into the wall.
There were more than 70 minutes on the clock before the hosts had their first shot. Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall fired just wide from outside the box to serve a warning.
Leicester brought on Jamie Vardy late on to add some energy to their press, but we saw out the remaining time expertly, hardly giving the opposition a sniff of goal.
What it means
Stats and facts
We have won 10 of their 13 Premier League away games this season (D1 L2), one more than we managed in the whole of last season. It's the fastest we've reached 10 away victories in any league campaign.
Leicester had just one shot in this match, their lowest on record (since 2003/04) in a single Premier League game. It's also the fewest a home team has had in a Premier League game since Crystal Palace against Chelsea in April 2021 (also 1).
We have won five consecutive league games against Leicester for the first time since October 1932, and three consecutive away league games against the Foxes for the first time since September 1925.
Gabriel Martinelli's opener (45:51) was just the second time we have scored in the opening minute of the second half of a Premier League game, after Paul Merson's strike at QPR in April 1994.
Martinelli scored his 20th Premier League goal, the 29th different player to do so for us. Only Chelsea (30) have had more players score 20+ in the competition.
Aaron Ramsdale has kept eight away clean sheets in the Premier League this season, the most by an Arsenal keeper on the road in a single campaign since Jens Lehmann in 2003/04 (also 8).
What’s next
The schedule starts to intensify now, with two games a week until the international break at the end of March.
On Wednesday we host Everton in what is our game in hand over Manchester City, before taking on Bournemouth on Saturday – also at Emirates Stadium.
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