Leicester City leap-frogged Manchester United to go into second place in the Premier League after securing a 2-1 win away from home against Aston Villa.

James Maddison opened the scoring for the visitors on the 19th minute. Maddison, in the form of his life, side footed the ball into the far bottom corner after not being closed down quickly enough. 

Just four minutes later, Harvey Barnes double the Foxes' lead. He was quickest to pounce onto a loose ball after a Jamie Vardy shot was parried away by Emiliano Martinez

This was Barnes' 13th goal in all competitions. Him and Maddison certainly would have impressed an on looking England boss Gareth Southgate

Brendan Rodgers spoke to BBC Radio Leicester after the game.

  • Thoughts on the performance

With Villa missing arguably their two most important players in Jack Grealish and Matty Cash, this was a big boost to the away side. 

Rodgers praised his side's performance in both halves, as they were both very different halves of football. 

He said on the performance: "They gave everything. First half we were great to watch. Second half we had to show we can dig in. It was a great victory for us"

"We pressed the game well. We were aggressive in our defending, limited Villa to not many opportunities and scored two very good goals. Second half pleased in a different way. They had momentum so we had to stand up but we withstood it."

  • Impressed with Barnes

In recent times, Leicester have struggled to have real quality on both sides of the wing after the departure of Riyad Mahrez nearly three years ago now. 

However, Harvey Barnes has cemented himself as a key player in this Leicester side on the left wing, cutting in onto his right, or beating defenders for pace.

On Barnes current run of form, Rodgers said: "When he's in full flow there's not many better. He's so direct. These boys come in with not much Premier League experience. We're here to maximise talents and he's adapting to the level."

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  • Leicester's solid right side

It was great to see Timothy Castagne back in the starting 11, arguably one of the Foxes' best signings in recent times.

This was the first time that Rodgers was able to pick from him, and Ricardo Pereira at the same time. 

He said: "We've wanted to play Ricardo in a more advanced position for a long time, but wanted Castagne there too. This was the first period both were fit to play. Timothy will penetrate, Ricardo can manipulate the ball. The two of them were very good and combined well."

Much like Barnes and Luke Thomas on the left hand side, there's plenty of fluidity in the attack of the wings which Leicester have optimised very well this season. 

  • Maddison update

What Leicester fan's certainly don't want is more injury problems as they've had plenty of them to deal with over the last year. 

James Maddison went off after around 65 minutes with a knock and Rodgers revealed more on the problem following the match.

The Northern-Irishman said: "James Maddison had an issue with his hip and was brought off as a precaution. He'll be assessed in the next 24-48 hours ahead of the game against Slavia Prague on Thursday."

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