Mateta and Guéhi strike as Crystal Palace extend Leicester losing run
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Some of the biggest cheers from Leicester supporters all night came when a flag-waving pitch invader managed to evade several stewards before being brought down. Unfortunately for Leicester, that appears to be their direction of travel. Second-half goals from Jean-Philippe Mateta and Marc Guéhi enabled Crystal Palace to equal the club’s best unbeaten away record in the top flight of six successive matches, moving them eight points clear of a relegation zone in which Leicester now appear entrenched.
![[Crystal Palace’s Jean-Philippe Mateta opens the scoring against Leicester.]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/08dac238c87083bc5de6d2671b5a60daf155760e/0_139_5056_3035/master/5056.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
They may have avoided a PSR sanction on the eve of this game but, having played their manager-change card last month, Ruud van Nistelrooy’s team have now lost six Premier League games in a row. “It’s a big blow,” the manager said. “It was I think the lowest that we have felt so far in my spell here because today we had high hopes of proving ourselves with the points and a performance.
“It’s our responsibility to give hope back to the fans. I felt their support tonight and it’s up to us to turn this negative cycle round.”. How he is going to shore this defence up remains to be seen. Leicester have conceded 25 goals in the 10 games since Steve Cooper was dismissed. Lose to Fulham on Saturday, and that would equal the club’s seven-game losing sequence in 2001, when they also conceded two goals in each game.
Quite where they turn now, beyond the transfer market, is a moot point. The fans turned on the director of football late on, chanting for Jon Rudkin to leave, but Woyo Coulibaly, the £3m full-back who signed from Parma on Wednesday, cannot provide all the answers on his own.
