Welbeck’s header earns Brighton draw at Leicester

Danny Welbeck’s powerful late header cancelled out Patson Daka’s opener as Leicester and Brighton shared the spoils at the King Power Stadium.

The striker found the bottom corner with eight minutes remaining as the Seagulls continued their trend of late goals on the road – and they had the best chances to win it too.

After a slow start for Brighton, with boss Graham Potter absent from the touchline due to a positive coronavirus test, positive substitutions saw them come on strongly in the closing stages and they had two glorious opportunities to snatch all three points.

Dan Burn saw his header cleared off the line by Youri Tielemans and 60 seconds later Kasper Schmeichel produced a wonderful save diving to his right to push a powerful Leandro Trossard drive past the post.

The Foxes had the better of the first half with James Maddison and Ademola Lookman both seeing efforts saved by the feet of Robert Sanchez when played through on goal.

They looked buoyed by the return of Daniel Amartey from international duty at the Africa Cup of Nations and James Justin making his first start in 11 months.

They took the lead they deserved when Daka was on hand to smash the ball home after Sanchez kept out Harvey Barnes’ toe-poke.

But they were not able to hold on and the point means Brighton stay ninth on 30 points, while Leicester move up to 10th and are four points behind them with a game in hand.

Brighton’s steel on the road – the stats

Brighton have only lost one of their 11 away games in the Premier League (W3 D7), a joint-low alongside Manchester City.

Their seven away draws is the most by a team in their first 11 games on the road in a Premier League campaign since Everton in 2015-16 (also seven).

Patson Daka became only the second player to score in each of his first three home starts for Leicester in the Premier League, after Leonardo Ulloa in the 2014-15 season.

The Foxes opener after 45 minutes and 26 seconds was the quickest goal scored in the second half of a Premier League game since February 2020, when Arsenal’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang netted at 45:24 against Everton.

What’s next?

Leicester’s next fixture is in the FA Cup in two weeks’ time when they will face East Midlands rivals Nottingham Forest on Sunday February 6. Brighton are also still in the cup and travel to Tottenham for an 8pm kick-off the day before.