IF YOU listened carefully enough yesterday you might have heard a lot of banging noises – especially around the Birmingham area.
If so, don’t worry.
It was just the booming sound of James Maddison and Harvey Barness knocking the door of Gareth Southgate’s England squad off its hinges!
The England boss was there to get a personal sneak preview of what his England side could look like this summer – many would say SHOULD look like – as James Maddison and Harvey Barnes ripped Villa apart.
Villa Park might be Jack Grealish’s manor but, with Dean Smith’s talismanic skipper missing through injury for the first time since November 2019, the Leicester pair popped over and turned the joint upside down.
However it was Southgate who left his old haunt with a couple of gems stashed away for future use as he was given a tantalising glimpse of just how exciting England’s future could be.
Maddison limped off after an hour with an ankle injury, 15 minutes after Bertrand Traore scored to hand Villa a lifeline just after the break to spark a home revival of sorts.
But this was the day Maddison and Barnes filled in their application form to be part of Southgate’s Euro plans, as Leicester climbed to second ahead of Manchester United’s evening game against Newcastle.
The Three Lions have a triple header of world cup qualifiers against San Marino, Albania and Poland just around the corner in March.
If Southgate believes England can do without these two talents in his squad then pile your life savings on the Three Lions being crowned European champs this summer with your friendly local bookmaker.
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Because if there are better players ahead of this pair on current form then England must really have a Golden Generation worthy of the name this time.
Without Grealish to inspire his teammates, Villa looked lost – a shell of the side currently challenging targeting European football next season.
And the Foxes weren’t slow to seize the stage and spotlight he had vacated with a show full of skill, pace, creativity and the killer touch England will need if they are going to go all the way this summer.
Leicester were already in total control of proceedings when Maddison fired them in front with a brilliant opener after 19 minutes.
Timothy Castagne robbed McGinn on the touchline and fed Youri Tielemans whose long ball towards Jamie Vardy was nodded down by Ezri Konsa.
Barnes pounced on it and fed Maddison who swept a low right foot shot to send the balkl beyond Emi Martinez and in off the inside of the Villa post from 22 yards.
It was his with goal of the season, his best ever haul in the Premier League and it was the 11th goal he had struck from outside of the bix to set a new Premier League record.
Ironically Maddison’s goal came seconds after Villa cmae close to scoring in their owly real attack of the first half when Ollie Watkins backheel allowed Anwar El Ghazi to centre and it took a brilliant block from Luke Thomas to deny Traore a certain goal.
However Villa buckled after Maddison’s opener and Barnes doubled their lead within four minutes.
Villa switched off at a throw in and Tielemans picked out Barnes who fed Vardy. The striker’s shot crashed off Martinez’s chest and before the ;’keeper could react Barnes smashed the ball high into the roof of his net.
Amazingly it was Barnes’13th goal of the season, just one behind Vardy.
The winger has now been directly involved in nine goals in his last 11 Premier League matches (6 goals, 3 assists) and his latest display won’t have gone unnoticed by Southgate as Barnes overtook both Marcus Rashford and Raheem Sterling in the scoring stakes.
A half-time word from Dean Smith saw a transformed Villa score within four minutes of the restart.
Matt Targett beat Castagne with a smart 1-2 and, although his stunning cross was missed by John McGinn at the near post, Traore was steaming in behind the Scot to beat Kasper Schmeichel from close range.
Leicester lost their way a bit after Maddison departed and Rodgers admitted as much as he sent on Papys Mendy, Daniel Amartey and Hamza Choudhury to batten down the hatches.
But without Grealish, Villa just lacked the creative spark they needed to salvage a point.
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