Burnley 0, Leicester City 2: Chris Boden's thoughts on a frustrating night at Turf Moor

On the pitch, things didn’t quite work either, as the Clarets passed up a chance to escape the relegation zone for the first time since October.As Sean Dyche said: “It was one that got away from us a little bit with our performance level.”Buoyed by a superb week where they had tripled their points haul, claiming seven from nine, and on the back of a run of one defeat in seven games, hopes were raised that Burnley could see off the faltering FA Cup holders.But when you looked at Leicester’s bench before the game, you sensed the squad at Brendan Rodgers’ disposal would have an impact, and so it proved.Jamie Vardy claimed his obligatory goal against the Clarets – his seventh in total, as the Foxes – the only side without a Premier League away clean sheet this season, put an end to that statistic.Rodgers’ side had conceded in each of their last 18 games on the road in the Premier League – their longest run of consecutive top-flight away games without a clean sheet since 1986.And, in truth, Burnley rarely looked like extending that dismal record, on a night where Nick Pope was by far the busier of the two goalkeepers.Pope, back in the sort of form which must put him in contention to return to the England squad when Gareth Southgate selects his pool in a fortnight, made four superb stops, three in the first half from Ricardo Pereira, Patson Daka and Burnley-born Harvey Barnes, and another after the break, again from a curler from the son of the former Claret Paul.After a high-energy start, with Burnley rattling into challenges, Leicester settled and began to look the more comfortable on the ball, and a threat on the counter attack.They initially penned Burnley in, and used their pace in wide areas, while the Clarets largely huffed and puffed.Burnley warmed to the task, and Maxwel Cornet – in for the unfortunate Jay Rodriguez – had the ball in the net from a cross-shot from Aaron Lennon, but was a foot off-side, when he didn’t really need to stray beyond Leicester’s back line.The loss of captain Ben Mee, who succumbed to a knee issue after a superb challenge on Daka, didn’t help, although replacement Nathan Collins was again an able deputy.Dyche had looked to freshen up his side for a fourth game in 10 days, and had to make one enforced change, with Erik Pieters out with a knee problem, replaced by Charlie Taylor.Rodriguez and Jack Cork were somewhat hard done to, however, as Cornet and Ashley Westwood returned to the side.Rather than freshen things up, however, the Clarets failed to hit the standards they have in the previous seven games, as they struggled to bring Wout Weghorst into the game, as well as Cornet, against a Foxes central defence again missing key personnel.You felt Burnley could get at Caglar Soyuncu and Daniel Amartey, but the Leicester duo came out on top as they earned a rare shutout on the road, having lost the last four, conceding at least two goals in each of those games.Dyche spoke after of “too many backward passes, too many poor decisions with the ball, no lack of energy, just that lack of clarity”, and that was a fair assessment.But as it seemed like the game would peter out to a goal-less draw, whcih would have been enough to leapfrog Everton out of the bottom three on goal difference, that man Vardy came back to haunt the Clarets.After nine or so weeks on the sidelines, his presence on the bench was enough to lift Leicestter, and strike fear into Burnley hearts.His double in the reverse fixture in September earned Leicester a point, after his headed own goal put Burnley ahead, and he claimed an assist and a goal at Turf Moor to move into double figures in terms of goal involvements against Dyche’s men.While it may feel that Vardy saves his best for Burnley, remarkably he has scored more against Arsenal (11), Liverpool (10), Manchester City (9) and Spurs (8),and he remains a thorn in the side of many at the age of 35.He created the opener eight minutes from time, which came in a similar vein to his winner in the sliding doors moment in 2015, when Leicesdter broke for him to score from Matty Taylor’s penalty miss – as Burnley went down, the Foxes stayed up and went on to win the Premier League the following season.Rodriguez desperately tried to get on the end of a clearance, only to be beaten by Kasper Schmeichel, and, with the Burnley defence looking around at three Leicester players in off-side positions, Vardy timed his run to perfection, held the ball up and teed up James Maddison, who measured a precise curler beyond Pope’s right hand.Burnley could have snatched an equaliser, as Weghorst shinned the ball over at the far post as Collins flicked on a Westwood corner.But Vardy killed the game off when drifting between James Tarkowski and Taylor to head in after superb work from Barnes on the left.Vardy rubbed it in, as is his style, after angering the home fans at 0-0 when collapsing dramatically underminimal contact from Collins, looking for a penalty that wasn’t coming.However, he had the last laugh, halting Burnley’s recent momentum, ahead of another testing clash at hom to Chelsea tomorrow.Burnley’s survival hopes remain in their own hands, but they can’t afford to have too many similar nights to this in the run in.