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25 min: Manchester City are now knocking the ball around with the old disdain. A sudden shift, given how shaky they looked before Savinho’s strike. Goals change games.
23 min: Stolarczyk probably should have done better, to be honest. He teed that up for Savinho to score his first goal for Manchester City, instead of turning the ball out for a corner. “City are staying up,” trill the visiting fans. Ten out of ten for gallows humour.
GOAL! Leicester City 0-1 Manchester City (Savinho 21)
Yes, well, scrub that! Foden strides down the middle and pearls a low drive towards the bottom-left corner. Stolarczyk gets down and parries. The ball breaks towards Savinho, on the left-hand corner of the six-yard box. Savinho lashes the ball past the keeper from a tight angle, and Manchester City are back, baby!
20 min: Gvardiol heads back towards his keeper … but there’s not enough purchase on his header. Vardy nips in and tries to round Ortega on the right. He shoots low from a tight angle. The keeper turns the ball out for a corner, from which nothing comes. Manchester City aren’t themselves at all, but that’s hardly breaking news.
18 min: Now it’s Leicester’s turn to stroke the ball around in the patient, measured style.
16 min: Soumare rolls a pass down the inside-left channel to release Vardy, who isn’t able to burst away from Lewis, but wins a throw deep in Manchester City territory nonetheless. However the flag then pops up for another offside. If Vardy manages to time one of these runs properly, Manchester City will be in big bother.
14 min: El Khannouss fires a pass out to Justin on the right flank, but the move breaks down when the ball’s shuttled to the busy Buonanotte. Still, after a slow start, the hosts are in this game now.
12 min: Kovacic is brought down as he sashays powerfully down the middle. De Bruyne takes the resulting free kick, but bashes it straight into the wall. Both teams look lively in attack, not so steady in defence.
10 min: A huge let-off for Manchester City. Buonanotte, bossing things in the centre circle, sprays a pass down the inside left for Vardy, who is clear! He attempts to round Ortega on the outside and is brought down. But it’s not a penalty, or a red card, because Vardy was an inch or two offside.
9 min: Leicester are already finding it surprisingly easy to play their way through the Manchester City press. They do so for the second time, Buonanotte rolling a pass down the right for Justin, who has the chance to shoot but hesitates fatally, and is eased off the ball by Lewis. Goal kick.
7 min: Some space for De Bruyne down the right. He cuts back from the byline for Haaland, who bashes a shot goalwards. Stolarczyk blocks well. The old Manchester City!
5 min: De Bruyne has a dig from distance. Over the bar it goes. Leicester finally get a go on the ball, and Buonanotte sends Mavididi scampering down the left. Mavididi cuts infield and curls a shot wide right.
4 min: More Manchester City possession. Leicester have hardly had a touch. Coady with one blooter clear, and that’s about it.
2 min: The visitors patiently stroke it around awhile. Then suddenly Savinho explodes into life, dribbling down the inside-left channel and entering the box. It’s a fine run, but then he takes a heavy touch and it’s a goal kick.
Manchester City kick off. A clapper-fuelled atmosphere at the King Power.
The teams are out! Everyone resplendent in blue: Leicester royal, City sky. We’ll be off in a minute or two. It won’t be that long before the teams are out at Selhurst Park, Goodison Park, Craven Cottage and the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium either, so here’s a reminder that Simon Burnton is all over the 3pm kick-offs in today’s Clockwatch.
Pre-match postbag. “David Squires tends to draw Haaland as a version of the Terminator but in recent weeks he’s been more like HAL9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey after he starts to malfunction. Do you think he’s having doubts about City’s mission (given all the uncertainty about FA charges, the future of the manager and various players, etc.)? Is he about to sing us a song?” – David Wall
“A Christmas pantomime reply to your question in the MBM preamble. ‘LLLLWDLLD. This Manchester City nonsense can’t go on for much longer, can it?’ PANTO AUDIENCE: O YES, IT CAN! City fan laughing at adversity” – Ewen Atkinson
Ruud van Nistelrooy, who takes charge of Leicester City for the sixth time, talks to Sky. “We were in the game [at Liverpool] for a long time … the 80th minute more or less … we were in for a surprising result, which was positive … when you go to the best team in the league at the moment, you wish for that, so it’s a credit to the team … if we take our opportunities a little bit better it helps … the Wolves defeat was bad in numbers but the performance was something to build on … it is great we have Jamie Vardy back … he is not a secret weapon … he is there to perform when we need him most.”
Pep Guardiola, who takes charge of Manchester City for the 500th time today, speaks to Sky. “I would discount the last 33, 34 days! … the last eight, nine, ten games! … I am so proud … a lot of games in modern football to be in one place … I am really happy of course … we are happy to have Kevin De Bruyne [back] … hopefully he can perform like he does.”
Leicester City can move out of the relegation places with a win this afternoon … for 30 minutes at least. They’d remain in 17th unless Wolverhampton Wanderers win at Tottenham Hotspur in the 3pm kick-offs. Manchester City can rise to fifth, but again, they’d only stay there providing Bournemouth fail to win at Fulham in the 3pms. Probably best to file all this under For What It’s Worth, and hey, we don’t schedule the fixtures.
Leicester make two changes after their 3-1 defeat at Liverpool. Jamie Vardy and Facundo Buonanotte are back; Patson Daka drops to the bench while Jordan Ayew is suspended.
Manchester City make one change after their 1-1 draw with Everton. Kevin De Bruyne replaces Jérémy Doku, who is benched.
The teams
Leicester City: Stolarczyk, Justin, Coady, Vestergaard, Kristiansen, Winks, Soumare, El Khannouss, Mavididi, Buonanotte, Vardy.
Subs: Iversen, Okoli, Wilson-Brown, Thomas, Skipp, Choudhury, De Cordova-Reid, Alves, Daka.
Manchester City: Ortega, Lewis, Akanji, Ake, Gvardiol, Kovacic, De Bruyne, Silva, Savinho, Foden, Haaland.
Subs: Carson, Walker, Grealish, Doku, Gundogan, Simpson-Pusey, Mubama, O’Reilly, McAtee.
Preamble
LLLLWDLLD. This Manchester City nonsense can’t go on for much longer, can it? But they’re not alone! Say, look at Leicester’s Premier League form over the same period: DLLLWDLLL. And so here we are, the 2016 winners and the four-in-a-row reigning champs, both down on their luck, meeting at the King Power in a match in which any result is possible, pretty much all of them of eyebrow-oscillating proportion. Kick-off is at 2.30pm GMT. It’s so very strange that it’s come to this, but it’s on!
