Jamie Vardy was front and centre of Leicester City's 1-1 draw with Tottenham Hotspur, marking his return to the Premier League with an equalising goal and a typical Vardy moment.
Vardy was substituted off in the closing stages of Monday's match and turned to face the Spurs fans. He pointed to the Premier League badge on his shirt sleeve and held up one finger before pointing to the travelling supporters and doing a "zero" gesture with his fingers, seeming to joke that Leicester have won more Premier League titles than Spurs.
After the match he revealed it was because the Spurs fans were joking with him during the match: "You take a bit of stick during the game. As long as they can take it when I give it back then it's all good!"
The rustle king has returned 👑 😂 pic.twitter.com/mrIKHPRRJk
— Leicester City (@LCFC) August 20, 2024
Vardy's goal was his 137th in 308 Premier League appearances, with 103 of those strikes coming since he turned 30.
He was an injury doubt for Monday's match but said post-match that he wanted to push through the pain, explaining the sense of responsibility he feels to his team-mates in making himself available and staying as fit as possible.
“Patson [Daka] took an injury and it’s taken me a while to get back, but the knee is absolutely fine and I’ve managed to get a full training session in, and I just had a chat with the gaffer,” Vardy explained. “I didn’t want to let any of the boys down so it was either starting or as a sub. As long as I was involved, I wanted to be here.
“We just kept it under wraps. At the end of the day, it could have gone the opposite [way]. I could have gone through the last training session and [started] feeling it again, so it’s just about taking it day by day, getting through each session and not having a reaction to the training that I’ve done, and just building my general fitness.
“As you can see, after 60 to 65 minutes the legs were starting to cramp up, so I’ll get a massage tomorrow and make sure I fully recover. Getting 60 to 65 minutes in would have done my body a world of good, and getting match minutes, because I don’t think anything can prepare you for the actual games.”
Cooper wants help for Vardy
Steve Cooper, the new Leicester manager, is keen though to bring in reinforcements alongside Vardy, especially given Patson Daka has been ruled out for a few months.
“If the game was on Sunday or certainly Saturday then there’s no way he would have played,” said Cooper. “He’d been out for a while, [since the] second week of pre-season, and Daka got injured last week at Lens. He’s had an operation and is going to be out for a few months.
“It was just grinding on [Jamie] a little bit that we were going back into the Premier League and we didn’t have a fit senior striker. He came to see me two days ago and just said, ‘I’m available to play,’ so we picked him.
“We definitely need to strengthen areas of the team, and I would say the top end of the pitch is where we’re looking to go. But while he’s available to play what he can then we’re going to use him, because when we get enough good ball around the opponents' box and when we get enough good territory and in good numbers, he’s the guy that will find the space. He’s the guy that will get on the end of something that nobody else is expecting.
“So let’s wrap him up, let’s work with him. He has to have a view as well on what’s right for him in preparation. I trust him. I believe that he’s trusting me as well, and how we’re going to treat him, and if we can get what we got tonight out of him, after two days’ training, then let’s continue that way.”
Spurs view: Postecoglou disappointed
Spurs boss Ange Postecoglou rued his side's failure to finish off their chances and their hosts, after having 70 per cent possession and more than twice as many shots, and shots on target, than Leicester.
“At times we made poor decisions," he said. "When we are that dominant we should be out of sight. We do everything to score goals and we didn’t score. The dominance is great but if you don’t score it is meaningless.
"We have to be stronger in our mindset in the front third. To be that wasteful is disappointing. We just weren’t clinical. To get results you need to be a lot more ruthless in the final third. If we don’t, we won’t get the rewards our football should get.
"If we are going to get to the next level, it is an area we have to improve. We want to bridge the gap to the top teams. The performance of the players in general was very good but we need to turn good performances into outcomes.”
