Puel: A Great Performance

- Leicester City beat Arsenal 3-1 at King Power Stadium on Wednesday night
- Kelechi Iheanacho opened the scoring before Konstantinos Mavropanos was sent off for Arsenal
- Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang equalised in the second half but Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez scored for City
- The Foxes have now guaranteed ninth place ahead of their final fixture against Tottenham on Sunday

The brilliant Kelechi Iheanacho got the Foxes off ta flying start with a well-taken goal from Fousseni Diabaté’s header after 14 minutes before he was hauled down by Konstantinos Mavropanos minutes later – the Gunners defender picking up a straight red for the offence.

Despite a host of City chances, Arsenal’s Pierre-Emerick Aubangeyang levelled shortly after the break but City got their noses in front once again as Demarai Gray was brought down in the box and Jamie Vardy converted from the spot.

Riyad Mahrez then added a third in stoppage time with a cool finish after an excellent Hamza Choudhury pass to hand the Foxes their first Premier League victory over Arsenal since 1994.

“I think it was a great performance,” reflected Puel at full-time. “It was a fantastic game with good intensity and a lot of chances. Congratulations to my players because they had a good mentality and showed aggressiveness, passion and desire in their game. They gave their best.

“I think it was important to finish at home with a strong game. I thought it would be difficult to win this game but the most important thing was to finish at home with a good performance, with quality, and to give a reward to our fans because they have been fantastic since the beginning of the season with all their support for the team.

“It was important to reward them because the last game was poor at home. It was a performance with quality but perhaps we wasted some good chances. With just one goal the situation allowed them to come back into the game but we kept a good intensity and played with conviction.

“We pressed them a lot and now I hope they can keep this in their memories about the quality, the good play on the floor, the chances when they play forwards with intensity, tempo and speed. The most important thing for me is the desire. They have the ability to play their game like this with good conviction and focus, and we showed a fantastic quality. It is great to finish with this performance at home.

“I say the most important thing is to put this spirit, aggressiveness and pressing and conviction. It was their game. They wanted to finish with a good feeling with the fans and it was a good response. It was important to finish with this quality game.”