Stoke City dig deep to deny Leicester and Puel thanks to Peter Crouch

Peter Crouch, age 36, has not started a Premier League game this season but he showed here that he is far from finished. Four minutes after being sprung from the bench on a mission to rescue his team from defeat, the former England striker obliged in familiar fashion, banging a header into the net to draw Stoke level. That was his third goal in his seventh league appearance as a substitute this term and he nearly embellished that tally by heading a winning goal in the dying seconds, only for Kasper Schmeichel to produce a splendid save.

“He’s not a bad option, is he?” Mark Hughes said, jokingly, of his 69th-minute introduction of Crouch. “Once again Pete has come on to good effect and it just illustrates what a great professional he is. Because of the way he trains he’s always available and that enables him when he’s called upon to still have an impact at this level. Once you bring on Peter, it’s a completely different problem for the opposition. Everybody’s saying he’s a Plan B but if he continues he might be Plan A.”

That is Crouch’s plan. “It would be nice to be starting and scoring goals but it’s the way things are going for me,” he said. “When I come on I try and make an impact and hopefully try and get in the starting XI.”

Although there is a unique joy in seeing Crouch continuing to lord it over defenders many years younger than him, a home win would have been harsh on Leicester, who were the better side for most of the match. In the first half, in particular, Claude Puel looked well on course to claim a second win in his second match since replacing Craig Shakespeare as Leicester manager.

Puel declared straight after taking the job that he intended making the team more versatile, insisting they could not continue to rely almost exclusively on counterattacking. After making a promising start last Sunday at home to Everton he did not lapse into caution for his first away match as Leicester were proactive and fluent from the outset.

Demarai Gray, the 21-year-old winger who seldom started under Shakespeare, was involved in most of their brightest moves, frequently leaving poor Kurt Zouma bedazzled. In the 11th minute Gray skipped past Zouma down the left and delivered a low cross for Jamie Vardy, whose close-range shot was blocked by Kevin Wimmer.

With Leicester in the unfamiliar position of controlling possession away from home, they were almost beaten at their own old game when Riyad Mahrez had the ball pinched off him midway inside opposition territory and Stoke almost struck on the counterattack. Ramadan Sobhi found Maxim Choupo-Moting but Schmeichel saved.

Four minutes later, Leicester took the lead from a set piece. Harry Maguire met a corner by Mahrez at the back post and headed the ball back across goal, leaving Vicente Iborra to sweep it into the net from six yards for his first goal since joining from Sevilla in the summer.

Leicester threatened to run amok. Mahrez let Stoke off by delaying a pass to Vardy after a mistake by Zouma and then Iborra almost reprised his opening goal but this time his shot was blocked. In the 37th minute, Gray left Zouma in a tizzy again and pinged in another cross for Shinji Okazaki, whose header was tipped over by Jack Butland.

View image in fullscreen

Then, when it seemed like Stoke’s best hope was to survive to half-time without conceding again, the hosts equalised. Iborra and Christian Fuchs, perhaps rendered overconfident by Leicester’s dominance, lost sight of Shaqiri, and Choupo-Moting picked him out with a flicked pass. Shaqiri scurried into the right of the penalty area and curled the ball into the far corner.

Mahrez nearly restored Leicester’s lead early in the second half, collecting a pass from Gray before firing inches past the far post from 10 yards. Schmeichel had to make a terrific save from a header by Ryan Shawcross following a corner and then, moments later, Mahrez did give Leicester their lead back. Wilfried Ndidi whacked the ball off the toe of Diouf on halfway and, perhaps unwittingly, released Mahrez down the right. The Algerian shrugged off a weak challenge by Eric Pieters, skittered into the penalty area and slammed a low shot into the far corner.

Hughes had picked the same Stoke side that had assuaged criticism of him by winning at Watford last Saturday but Leicester’s second goal was the catalyst for the Stoke manager to make a change. As so often in time of need, Crouch came to the rescue, running on to an outswinging corner by Shaqiri to power home the equaliser.