When Brendan Rodgers signed a five-and-a-half-year contract extension last month, he cited a desire to win trophies and, after watching Leicester brush aside Wigan to reach the FA Cup fourth round, his team continue to fight on three fronts.
Liverpool’s 13-point lead in the Premier League seems insurmountable but Leicester could still earn silverware in the domestic cups. On Wednesday they face Aston Villa in the first leg of the Carabao Cup semi-finals, when Rodgers will surely restore several of the big hitters that were rested here, notably James Maddison.
Last season Leicester exited this competition at this stage at Newport, a defeat that left Claude Puel on borrowed time. But a year on, and in safer surrounds, they dispatched Championship opposition courtesy of an own goal and a strike by Harvey Barnes, who operated as a No 9 for the evening.
For Wigan, who had a second-half strike by Jamal Lowe ruled out by the video assistant referee, there was to be no repeat of their 2017-18 Cup heroics, when they knocked out Bournemouth, West Ham United and Manchester City before coming unstuck in the quarter-finals.
Not everything went to plan for Rodgers, with the defenders Wes Morgan and Filip Benkovic forced off with groin and ankle injuries respectively.
Caglar Soyuncu, who replaced Morgan after 25 minutes, will start against Villa alongside Jonny Evans, who was among those given a breather here as Rodgers made 10 changes. Yet Leicester are short of defensive cover, necessitating their pursuit of the Juventus centre-back Merih Demiral. As it happened, Leicester’s defence were rarely stretched and it was a new-look attack, spearheaded by the electric Barnes, which encouraged Rodgers.
“That was the experiment, to have a look at that,” Rodgers said. “He has played up there when he was [on loan] at West Brom, in and around the front line. It is helping his flexibility and understanding of the game. Because of his pace and his threat it was a chance for us to have a look at him through the middle. He got his goal, he worked very hard and looked a threat.”
It was a pleasing night’s work for a much-changed Leicester, with Ben Chilwell the only survivor from the team that won at Newcastle on New Year’s Day. Danny Ward, who replaced Kasper Schmeichel in goal, had little to do but claw away a Gavin Massey cross and Benkovic, who impressed under Rodgers on loan at Celtic, was composed until being forced off.
Barnes, meanwhile, was tasked with the responsibility of leading the line a la Jamie Vardy, who returned to training on Saturday morning following a calf complaint. The 22-year-old was a constant menace for the Wigan backline, leading defender Cédric Kipré to crudely clothesline the makeshift striker.
This was a mismatch in most senses but Wigan, 39 places below the hosts in the pyramid, made Leicester think before Tom Pearce’s own goal gifted the Foxes the lead on 19 minutes. Barnes’s performance deserved a goal and he doubled Leicester’s advantage five minutes before the interval after applying the finishing touch to a crisp counterattack.
As debuts go, Pearce’s was memorable for the wrong reasons, with the Wigan defender inadvertently sweeping Marc Albrighton’s cross beyond his own goalkeeper, David Marshall. It was Pearce’s cross that Lowe volleyed in from close range, only for VAR to intervene at a time when Leicester were getting comfortable.
“To get through was very important for us,” Rodgers said. “Some players came in and got games which was great but of course our process here is always about performance and of course we can play better.
“We weren’t good enough on the ball. The players gave everything, which they always do, but we have to be better and much cleaner with the ball. We could have had the ball for longer periods than we did but that was my only grumble.”