Leonardo Ulloa grabs double against Swansea as Leicester extend lead

Leicester City extended their lead at the top of the Premier League to eight points after Riyad Mahrez, Marc Albrighton and a Leonardo Ulloa brace secured a 4-0 win over Swansea

Perhaps the most impressive part is the way Leicester City, closing in on an almost unimaginable piece of football history, made the latest stage of what increasingly resembles a victory procession such a stress-free occasion. This was their biggest win of the season, just when the heat of the pressure was supposed to be rising dangerously close to intolerable. The goals flew in, the crowd sang Barcelona, were coming for you and the place has never felt happier.

Claudio Ranieris team played as though immune to nerves, apart from a few minutes at the start before they realised that Swansea City, with their accident-prone defence and end-of-season drift, would be obliging opponents. After that, it was a stroll that suggested Leicester are thriving, rather than wilting, on the weight of expectation. Four-nil to the one-man team was another chant, as the evidence was supplied about how daft it was to suspect Leicester without Jamie Vardy would take on the form of a flower without water.

There will certainly be more difficult assignments in the coming weeks as Leicester finish the season against Manchester United, Everton and Chelsea and at this stage, with an eight-point lead, it would be harrowing for them, to say the least, if this previously unremarkable club cannot end the most eccentric year of their lives in possession of the Premier League trophy.

They need five points from their remaining fixtures to be certain but that assumes Tottenham Hotspur, in second position, win their final four games, and there was absolutely nothing in this performance to suggest a late meltdown from a team whose durability and mental fortitude had been questioned unfairly, by some degree on the back of the wild 2-2 draw against West Ham last weekend.

As it turned out Vardys replacement, Leonardo Ulloa, scored two of the goals while Ranieris decision to bring in Jeffrey Schlupp on the left was vindicated with an outstanding performance. Schlupp gave Leicester the pace and directness that they might have been missing in Vardys absence and as an insight into the togetherness of this team, there was a lovely exchange when he was taken off late on and Marc Albrighton took over. Albrighton had lost his place in the starting line-up but the two players still shared a joke and a warm embrace and within a couple of minutes, the substitute had added the fourth goal.

Leicester had played with the belief, structure and enthusiasm that, by now, we are all acquainted with. Danny Drinkwater and NGolo Kant were indefatigable in midfield. Riyad Mahrez, scorer of the opening goal, showed his refinement in attack and, defensively, there were only sporadic occasions when Kasper Schmeichels goal was seriously threatened. Leicester have now kept seven clean sheets in their final nine fixtures and look, in short, like champions-in-waiting.

Swansea, in stark contrast, look like a side that may need to reinvent themselves next season. When Ulloa headed in Drinkwaters free-kick to make it 2-0 after half an hour it was the 20th time this season that Swansea have been caught out at a set-piece, accounting for almost half their goals-against column. Their manager, Francesco Guidolin, abandoned his striker-less formation at half-time and the game was a personal ordeal for Ashley Williams given his level of culpability in the first goal, presenting Mahrez with the ball from a lazy pass out of his own penalty area.

Mahrez accepted the gift in a typically unhurried fashion, taking his time, steadying himself and aiming a precise shot inside the near corner of Lukasz Fabianskis goal. From that point onwards there was a huge imbalance between the sides.

Ulloa eluded Williams to score the second from a twisting header and it probably summed up this Leicester team that the free-kick for that goal came from Wes Morgan, of all people, on the left wing, dispossessing Wayne Routledge and winning a foul in the process.

After that, the game was so one-sided it seemed perplexing that Guidolin talked about being impressed with his teams work ethic. Swanseas manager also repeatedly mentioned the way his players had passed the ball in the opening six minutes. Their problem, unfortunately, came in the other 84, especially when Schlupp was running at them or Mahrez had it on the other side.

Leicesters third goal started from their own penalty area, a quick ball out from Schmeichel and Schlupp getting away from ngel Rangel and Federico Fernndez to burst clear on the left. Williams blocked the first attempt to play in Ulloa, running in from the right, but Schlupp picked out his team-mate the second time and it just needed a touch at the far post.

The home team were rampant by the time Albrighton turned in the fourth goal, firing high into the net after some fine work from another of the substitutes, Demarai Gray, and the noise at the end was as loud as at any other time this season. The only flicker of apprehension came when Ranieri was asked afterwards about the Barcelona chants. God, not Barcelona, he said. It would be a fantastic experience, but come on, man. Yet Leicester, one imagines, would give it a go.

Man of the match Jeffrey Schlupp (Leicester City)

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/apr/24/leicester-swansea-city-premier-league-match-report