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Leeds United star defended for controversial in-game action by Leicester City counterpart

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Image for Leeds United star defended for controversial in-game action by Leicester City counterpart

Luke Ayling and Christian Fuchs shared a friendly interaction on Twitter after the pair came together for a controversial moment in Leeds United’s 4-1 home defeat to Leicester City.

Signed from Bristol City in 2016, Luke Ayling has been a first-team regular from the moment he stepped into the doors at Elland Road.

His leadership and defensive ability at right-back has been a vital asset for the Whites in their quest for Premier League football, and even captained the side in their first match since that return, a 4-3 defeat away to Liverpool.

Following that huge milestone, Ayling has continued to be a pivotal member of the team, helping Leeds to notch up 10 points so far from seven games.

Two clean sheets and three wins into the season and Ayling has been very impressive at right-back, unlucky not to get his first Premier League goal against Man City when denied superbly by Ederson.

However, one prevalent feature of the 29-year-old’s game that has been picked up by fans is what has been coined the ‘Ayling Flop’. A knack of drawing minimal contact from an opponent before tumbling to the ground and earning a foul.

The Premier League has witnessed the best of the Ayling Flop already but the Leicester City clash saw the worst of it.

Driving into the Foxes penalty area in the second half as the hosts chased an equaliser, Ayling went down expecting Christian Fuchs’ challenge to make contact, however, replays showed the left-back made no contact on Ayling and it was a dive, lucky to evade a caution.

Since then, the pair exchanged in a light-hearted discussion on Twitter about the flashpoint, looking back in good spirits:

I thought from the first angle that it was a penalty on camera but the lack of appeal says it all.

It was a very good decision by Andre Marriner to not give the penalty but I’m just surprised he wasn’t yellow carded.

It’s great to see that Fuchs isn’t holding it against Ayling and can see the positive side of his honesty after the challenge.

We all know how Ayling operates when under pressure in a challenge and my first thought when he went down was why he didn’t stay up and either take the inevitable contact or beat Fuchs and drive the ball across the six-yard box for a goal.

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Leeds United season ticket holder since 2013/14, currently situated in the middle of the FA5 noise. From Pablo Hernandez to 5-1 drubbings, I've seen it all at Elland Road.