Leicester’s second “mission impossible” suddenly looks all the more fiendish.
Their winning run, amounting to eight league games before this afternoon, had been expected to continue in relative comfort against a relegation-threatened Norwich, but they did not deserve anything more than the draw for which they had to settle.
Jamie Vardy was not even able to augment his own eight-match scoring run, his 38th-minute header effort deflecting in off Tim Krul for Leicester’s equaliser and going down as an own goal.
It bailed the home side out after Teemu Pukki had scored for their enterprising visitors, who played well throughout, but Leicester’s inability to find a winner leaves them 10 points shy of Liverpool and almost certainly shorn of hope that a title challenge can be sustained.
Despite the difference in league positions this clash had an agreeable feel to it at the outset.
Neither Brendan Rodgers nor Daniel Farke sanction much deviation from their commitment to an open, high-intensity style and it was, on paper, one of those fixtures that stood little chance of finishing goalless.
That prediction was borne out soon enough but the real surprise was that Pukki’s opener had seemed perfectly likely on the balance of play.
Norwich were never going to respect the form book with a containing game and, after a tentative start, could have scored twice before eventually getting it right.
Alex Tettey had the first go, drilling a half-cleared corner towards goal and watching Ben Chilwell block with Kasper Schmeichel almost certainly beaten.
Their second sight of goal was clearer and stemmed from a superb move, Max Aarons and Kenny McLean slicing Leicester open before the former centred for the stretching Pukki.
From a matter of feet, and with Schmeichel nowhere near, he managed to graze the ball but not sufficiently to divert it in.
By the time Pukki did score, in the 26th minute, Norwich were looking much the more composed side in possession.
But Rodgers will have been perplexed by the way in which a relatively simple pass from Tom Trybull bisected Leicester entire midfield, giving Emi Buendía all the space he needed in front of the back four.
His slide-rule ball for Pukki was a peach, though, weighted just well enough to meet the striker’s run past Caglar Soyuncu. The finish, rolled across a rooted Schmeichel, was outstanding.
Leicester had largely spluttered by this point although, in between those first two Norwich chances, a snaking run by Youri Tielemans had brought a 20-yard shot that Krul fumbled on to the base of a post.
They looked flat and perhaps needed the sharpener of a major flashpoint shortly after the half-hour.
Norwich felt entitled to receive the ball back when Tom Trybull, aware Buendía was down, knocked it out for a Leicester throw-in.
But Iheanacho, failing to get the memo upon receiving possession, surged towards the penalty area and was only halted by a Christoph Zimmermann’s crude foul.
Now that the danger had passed half of Norwich’s players piled in furiously on Iheanacho.
The melee that ensued took some resolving, with VAR eventually being deployed to adjudge Todd Cantwell, who had bent down menacingly towards his prone opponent and appeared to grab at him, did not deserve a red card.
Norwich had not needed the interruption and fell asleep soon afterwards in the manner that has undone much of their good work all season.
James Maddison’s corner and Vardy’s run across Kenny McLean to the near post were meat-and-drink stuff but still too much for the away defence.
Vardy made contact but his header would have flashed across goal had it not glanced in off the hand of an unlucky Krul.
Whether due to an iffy performance or a residual red mist Iheanacho was replaced by Demarai Gray straight afterwards.
At half-time Rodgers, clearly dissatisfied, made a second change in deploying Harvey Barnes for the ineffective Dennis Praet.
He almost received an instant response. Three minutes of the second period had passed when Vardy, taking a long Maddison pass down beautifully, skated around Krul at a wide angle on the left but rolled his effort against the outside of the near upright.
Then Vardy drew a save with a sidefooter from Chilwell’s cross and Leicester, while still short of their best, were at least asking questions.
It remained a good, competitive game, though, with Norwich retaining a threat and showing an appetite to engage in meaty challenges.
One of them came from Aarons, sliding in to block from Vardy. Krul saved again after Vardy had juggled into a shooting position but, going into the final 15 minutes, Leicester were hardly battering the door down.
Barnes summed up a more general waywardness by air-kicking an attempted volley near the 18-yard line.
Leicester then had to thank Soyuncu, this time keeping up with Pukki after another sumptuous ball from Buendía had sent him scampering away, for intervening as Norwich sensed they stood just as much chance of a winner as their hosts.
Pukki was denied again, this time by Ricardo Pereira after Ben Godfrey had released him, and Aarons almost skewed into his own net during a frantic finale. At then end the only cheers came from the away support.
