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Manchester United come into this game with an unfamiliar feeling. They can look back on their last performance with great satisfaction.
Against Real Sociedad on Thursday, they weren’t flawless (until the 87th minute, they led only by virtue of some over-zealous refereeing), but by the end they were dominant. And the word “electrified” was even used.
Rasmus Højlund and Alejandro Garnacho have both gone 20 games without scoring, but they both got assists in that game and it feels as if a goal is just around the corner. Garnacho always finds a way to shoot. Højlund doesn’t, but when he teed up Diogo Dalot for United’s fourth, he celebrated as if they’d won the Europa League. When he finally scores, he may well explode.
United now have the chance to do something that has been beyond them all season and Go On a Run. But it would not exactly be out of character for them to stumble tonight.
And they’ve done it! Despite conceding in the 95th minute.
Meanwhile, at Wembley, Newcastle are about seven minutes away from winning their first trophy in 70 years. Do join John Brewin to see if they can do it.
Teams in full
Leicester (3-4-2-1) Hermansen; Coady, Faes, Thomas; Justin, Ndidi, Soumaré, Kristiansen; Daka, El Khannouss; Vardy.
Subs: Stolarczyk, Okoli, Coulibaly, Winks, Buonanotte, Mavididi, McAteer, De Cordova-Reid, Ayew.
Manchester United (3-4-2-1) Onana; De Ligt, Lindelof, Heaven; Mazraoui, Ugarte, Fernandes, Dalot; Garnacho, Eriksen; Højlund.
Subs: Harrison, Mee, Fredricson, Amass, Casemiro, Collyer, Mount, Zirkzee, Obi.
Teams in brief: Leicester unchanged
Ruud keeps faith with the XI that lost only narrowly at Stamford Bridge, so it’s the battle of the back threes.
Teams in brief: Ugarte and Eriksen start
For United, Manuel Ugarte is back from injury to replace Casemiro, who was “very tired”, according to Amorim, after having his best spell of the season. Christian Eriksen comes in for Joshua Zirkzee as the left-sided No 10, and Mason Mount is back on the bench after a long lay-off.
Preamble
Evening everyone and welcome to the last Premier League match of this month. If you’re an addict, you’re about to go cold Tuchel.
Tonight’s game is at 7pm, expertly timed to infuriate the travelling fan and not much better for the season-ticket holder with young children. It’s the fourth Van Nistelrooy derby of the season, but the first at the King Power. United won the other three – 5-2, 3-0, 2-1 – so at least Leicester’s defenders have got better at coping with them. On the third occasion, in the FA Cup, Leicester were beaten only by a header from Harry Maguire that was (a) in Fergie time and (b) blatantly offside.
Ruud van Nistelrooy has been in the technical area for all four of these games, two on each side. Ruben Amorim – whose first act as United manager was to get rid of Ruud – has only faced Leicester in the cup. In the league, both managers have made their teams worse. Amorim has five wins in 17 PL games, Van Nistelrooy two in 15 with Leicester – after being unbeaten in four games in all competitions, and oozing authority, as United’s stopgap manager.
Entertaining as the United soap opera is, tonight is more about whether Leicester can turn the tide. In their past five league games, it’s been Leicester 0, The Rest 13. They used up far too many goals on 11 January, when they beat QPR 6-2: since then, they haven’t scored at home. Their chances of staying up are 1 per cent according to Opta. The only way it can happen is if they collect 10 more points than Wolves.
Leicester’s next four opponents are Man City, Newcastle, Brighton and Liverpool, so they simply have to win tonight, then beat one of that lot (Newcastle, at a pinch?), hope Wolves get only one point from their next four games (West Ham home, Ipswich away, Spurs home, Man U away), and win the showdown between the two at the King Power on 3 May. That would leave Leicester a mere point adrift with home games against Southampton and Ipswich to come. It may be a faint hope, but it’s the only one they’ve got.
