Jamie Vardy salvages draw for dogged Leicester to leave Leeds frustrated

Some cushions are plumper than others and no one could call the two-point bolster separating Leeds from the bottom three remotely comfortable.

Yet if the chances of Javi Gracia’s side avoiding relegation remain touch-and-go his players can at least be proud of the paper-thin bolster they maintained in the course of a resilient performance against a Leicester side who could not quite make their technical superiority count. While Leeds remain 16th, two points above the relegation zone, Leicester are one point and one place below them with Dean Smith’s side facing a vital game at Everton on Monday.

Leeds kicked off hoping to arrest a losing run which had seen them concede 13 goals in their previous three games. Gracia, though, resisted a considerable clamour to drop his goalkeeper, Illan Meslier, following a string of recent errors on the 23-year-old’s part. Whether that decision represented cruelty or kindness was left up in the air but at least Meslier received public support from his captain, Liam Cooper. “Illan has saved us more times than not this season,” wrote Cooper in the matchday programme. “We are all behind him and know he will soon be back to his best.”

Meslier’s once seemingly superhuman confidence has appeared shot to pieces in the past few weeks but he could not have been expected to save the rising, 20-yard, high-velocity shot from Youri Tielemans which whizzed past him in the sixth minute, grazing the underside of the bar en route to the back of the net. Leeds, and their goalkeeper in particular, looked utterly crestfallen, but they were rescued by a VAR review which detected an offside against Boubakary Soumaré during the fallout from the improperly cleared James Maddison corner which prefaced Tieleman’s