Ranieri is full of praise for Chelsea's character

Leicester City 2 Chelsea 3

Leicester won the sympathy vote but Dave Bassett would sooner they were Public Enemy No 1 if it came with three points. "Maybe we'll have to start bribing the opposition," he suggested, looking desperate enough not to dismiss the idea out of hand.

The Leicester manager, his side eight points from safety, is starting to believe the fates are ganging up on him, which is never a good sign. "I must have run over a family of black cats," he said before the game.

His resources have been reduced by a horrendous injury list but his claim that Chelsea were lucky winners is a hollow one. Leicester made critical errors and were punished. Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink raised his score for the season to 22 goals after Gianfranco Zola had presented evidence that he can still take a mean free-kick.

Chelsea trailed 2-1 with 12 minutes left, heading for a repeat of the score by which they lost at Filbert Street last season. That they should then turn the game around, owes less to good fortune than to resourceful football played with a conviction that has not always been their hallmark.

The Chelsea manager, Claudio Ranieri, admitted his players had been tentative at first. They allowed themselves to be treated contemptously by the home side, who deservedly led at half-time after James Scowcroft had headed Stefan Oakes's corner firmly past Carlo Cudicini.

It was Leicester's aerial strength, Ranieri said, that worried Chelsea the most, although he would not criticise his defenders for failing to nullify it. "If there are good players, they score good goals," he said. "There was no mistake from my defenders." None the less, the way Scowcroft climbed to head home another Oakes corner for Leicester's second goal did not reflect well on John Terry, in particular. Before that, Hasselbaink had cashed in on the first of the home side's critical mistakes to head Chelsea level, the Dutch striker finding himself in free space to receive Graeme Le Saux's deflected cross after Jacob Laursen had strayed into no man's land.

In varying degrees, blame attached to Laursen for all Chelsea's goals. The free-kick that offered Zola, in his 250th Chelsea game, the chance to show off his exquisite skill followed the Dane's unnecessary foul on Mikael Forsell, and it was he who was taken out by the one-two with Forsell that set up Hasselbaink's last-minute winner. "He has held his hands up," Bassett said. "But these things happen.

"It was Matt Jones the other night, Matt Elliott last weekend," Bassett added. "I could go through the games because they all seem to have an error in their bag. At the top level you get punished for them."

For Ranieri, the big Chelsea plus was character. At a goal down, his players sulked noticeably, but two changes in personnel and tactics at half-time also came with a change of temperament. "Everybody had a better attitude in the second half," he said.

Next up for Chelsea, after Wednesday's FA Cup business against West Ham is put to bed, are Aston Villa and Charlton away, followed by Fulham and Tottenham at home, in what may be a revealing sequence.

Goals: Scowcroft (24) 1-0; Hasselbaink (62) 1-1; Scowcroft (68) 2-1; Zola (79) 2-2; Hasselbaink (90) 2-3.

Leicester City (3-5-2): Walker 6; Sinclair 5, Elliott 6, Laursen 3; Impey 5 (Marshall 5, 69), Savage 6, Izzet 5, Oakes 7, Davidson 5; Piper 6, Scowcroft 8. Substitutes not used: Flowers (gk), Benjamin, Lewis, Rogers.

Chelsea (4-4-2): Cudicini 7; Melchiot 5, Terry 5, Desailly 6, Le Saux 7; Dalla Bona 6, Lampard 5, Petit 6, Stanic 4 (Forssell 7, h-t); Gudjohnsen 5 (Zola, 7, h-t), Hasselbaink 8. Substitutes not used: De Goey (gk), Jokanovic, Ferrer.

Referee: G Barber (Tring) 6.

Bookings: Leicester City: Laursen. Chelsea: Stanic, Petit.

Man of the match: Hasselbaink.

Attendance: 19,950.