James Maddison and Harvey Barnes scored as Leicester City edged out an Aston Villa side missing the injured Jack Grealish.

Moments later, Barnes was on hand to strike home a rebound, giving the Foxes a deserved two-goal lead.

Villa lacked creativity without captain Grealish – who has a leg injury that is set to keep him out for around a month – but were given a lifeline when Bertrand Traore volleyed home a loose ball.

The hosts struggled to create further openings as Leicester held on to go second in the Premier League, three points clear of Manchester United, who host Newcastle later on Sunday (19:00 GMT).

Maddison and Barnes continue to impress

With England manager Gareth Southgate watching on, English duo Maddison and Barnes barely put a foot wrong for Leicester in the first half.

Maddison, 24, had been involved in eight goals in his past nine league appearances coming into this fixture, and it took him just 19 minutes to curl Leicester in front after a lay-off from Barnes.

And Barnes was then in the right place moments later, tapping in after Villa keeper Emiliano Martinez parried a close-range Jamie Vardy effort.

Maddison was substituted midway through the second half after a minor knock to his hip.

But Barnes continued to orchestrate from midfield, playing through Vardy who fired a dangerous effort across the face of goal late on.

Villa toothless without injured Grealish

For the first time since November 2019, club captain Jack Grealish was not in the Aston Villa squad for a Premier League match.

“He had some discomfort in training this week. At the end of the week, we decided he wasn’t right to play,” Villa boss Dean Smith told Sky Sports before the game.

Nobody has been involved in more Villa goals than Grealish this season, and without their captain, Smith’s side looked a shadow of their usual selves in the first half.

Forward Traore halved the deficit three minutes after the restart, pouncing on a loose ball after Matt Targett’s cross was flicked on by John McGinn.

But Leicester easily wrestled back control, with a late Tyrone Mings header the only other chance of note for the hosts.

Grealish had started Villa’s previous 48 league fixtures – but they must learn to adapt to life without him for the next few games.

More Villa Park joy for Rodgers – the stats

• Leicester City have won back-to-back away top-flight matches against Aston Villa for the first time since October 1960.
• Aston Villa have won just one of their past 21 Premier League games against sides starting the day in the top three (D4 L16), losing 11 of their past 12 such fixtures (W1).
• Leicester City manager Brendan Rodgers has won all six of his away Premier League games against Aston Villa as a manager, his best such 100% record versus an opponent in the competition.
• Under Dean Smith, Aston Villa have averaged 1.5 points per game in league competition when Jack Grealish has featured (P80 W36 D14 L30) compared with 0.9 points per game without him (P18 W3 D7 L8), losing all three Premier League matches without the Englishman since the start of last season.
• Since his Premier League debut in August 2018, Leicester’s James Maddison has scored more goals from outside the area than any other player (11). This was his eighth league goal of the season, his best scoring campaign in the top flight.
• Only Jamie Vardy (14) has scored more goals for Leicester this season than Harvey Barnes (13), who has now had a direct hand in nine goals in his past 11 Premier League matches (six goals, three assists).

What’s next?

Aston Villa travel to Leeds in the Premier League on Saturday, 27 February (17:30 GMT), while Leicester take on Slavia Prague in the second leg of their Europa League last-32 tie on Thursday, 25 February (20:00 GMT).

Sourced From BBC