Manuel Pellegrini's men – 4-1 winners over Sunderland on Boxing Day as Leicester were beaten 1-0 at Liverpool – had the better of the first half, but found Kasper Schmeichel in fine form as Kevin De Bruyne and Raheem Sterling were denied by the Dane.
Leicester carried a threat of their own,
though, and could have gone in ahead had Marc Albrighton been able to hook Christian Fuchs' delivery into the net after Joe Hart had been taken
out of the equation.
Jamie
Vardy spurned an even better chance when he blazed over the target after
being put through one-on-one, while the returning Sergio Aguero was
uncharacteristically wayward with an excellent opening early in the second
half.
The Argentina
striker saw penalty appeals waved away just past the hour, only seconds
before he was substituted, and Nicolas Otamendi brought another save from Schmeichel in
the next attack.
Ultimately
neither side could find a way through, despite having shared 74 top-flight
goals between them this season, and Pellegrini's charges remain without a
win on the road in the Premier League since September.De Bruyne had a clear sight of goal in the 17th minute, but his side-footed effort from Sterling's cut-back was parried away by Schmeichel.
A sloppy piece of play from Aleksandar Kolarov gifted possession to Riyad Mahrez midway through the half and the in-form forward's curling effort narrowly cleared Hart's crossbar.
Schmeichel was called into action again a minute later when Sterling's precise volley was tipped away from the bottom corner by the 29-year-old, who kept out the same player's long-range strike soon after.
Leicester – whose owners laid on free drinks for the fans to celebrate a fine year – almost delivered the perfect sucker punch with two excellent chances in the dying embers of the half as a stretching Albrighton turned Fuchs' searching cross into the side netting with Hart stranded.
Then Vardy collected a pass from N'Golo Kante, who had capitalised on Fernando's error, but the England striker blasted his shot over.
He
could have been made to pay within two minutes of the restart, but Aguero – on
for Wilfried Bony – skied De Bruyne's low cross from just
a couple of yards out.
While the match fell short of the
quality you might expect from a top-of-the-table clash, it still had its
talking points and Aguero felt he should have had a penalty when Gokhan Inler
barged into him, but referee Craig Pawson was unmoved.
Otamendi's downward header was superbly
kept out by Schmeichel from the subsequent corner as the visitors continued to
push for a first away league win since their triumph at Crystal Palace more
than three months ago.
Hart saved from Fuchs and substitute
Bony saw his first-time effort blocked in the final 10 minutes as
Leicester ended 2015 second to Arsenal
on goal difference, ahead of their visitors by three points.
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