Leicester City manager Dean Smith admitted that his side would have been fortunate to go two goals ahead against Everton but reckons Sean Dyche’s side were spared such a deficit because of a rare goalkeeping decision from Jordan Pickford.
Everton had started brightly at the King Power Stadium, going ahead through Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s penalty but after goals from Caglar Soyuncu and Jamie Vardy turned the game on its head, they faced the prospect of being 3-1 down at the break when Michael Oliver pointed to the spot after a handball from Michael Keane. Rather than make up his mind early though, Blues keeper Pickford, after consulting the crib sheet showing opponents’ spot-kick tendencies on his water battle, stayed on his feet to save James Maddison’s strike that went down the middle of the goal.
Smith said: “Since I’ve been here, if Kel (Inheanacho) was on the pitch, he was taking the penalty but if Madders is on the pitch behind Kel, he’d take it after Kel. That’s been there for the last three or four games so there’s not so much confusion from me.
