Nigel Pearson says Leicester deserved more in their 3-1 defeat to Chelsea

Leicester City manager Nigel Pearson felt his side did not deserve to lose 3-1 against champions-elect Chelsea on Wednesday night.

The Foxes held a deserved 1-0 lead at half-time thanks to a Marc Albrighton strike, but Chelsea rallied in the second half as goals from Didier Drogba, John Terry and Ramires took them to within one win of the Premier League title.

Leicester remain one point outside the relegation zone and Pearson, before storming out of the press conference and calling a journalist an ostrich, was proud of the way his team competed against a side he called “worthy champions”.

“I don’t think our players deserved what happened tonight in terms of being on the end of a 3-1 defeat,” he said. 

“I think it was a tighter game than that. Ultimately, when you measure yourself in the Premier League you have got to look at the types of sides you are playing against and tonight was a really good illustration of playing against one of the best sides, who weren’t allowed to be at their best.

“I’ve heard criticism of Chelsea in the last few weeks and I find it very bemusing that people have the views that they have.

"The best sides are able to win games in different ways and I think Chelsea illustrated that tonight coming to a place where they would have expected a difficult game and we’ve given them a difficult game.”

Leicester had the better of the game in the first period despite losing both Robert Huth and Andy King to injury, which resulted in Pearson reshuffling his pack on a couple of occasions.

The early substitutions meant Pearson was unable to freshen up his tiring side in the closing stages and although he admitted it did not affect the result, he thought the early changes disrupted their rhythm.

“It was difficult tonight as we had to make substitutions which in normal circumstances we wouldn’t have done,” he said.

“It was a tough game. We took the lead and showed a decent account of ourselves. Chelsea showed more intent in the second half and showed quality which was needed. But I do half-rue to the fact that we had to make decisions in terms of changing players that normally we wouldn’t have to. But that’s life.

“It would be unfair on Chelsea [to blame the early substitutions for the result].

“We had a game plan, we chose the bench which reflected how we wanted to do things but you can never second guess how things go throughout the entirety of the game.”