Leicester City visit Old Trafford in midweek on the back of a disappointing thumping at the hands of bottom-sided Newcastle United.
While the Foxes have not come out victorious against the Red Devils since the 2014/15 season – when they clinched a remarkable 5-3 win at the King Power Stadium – this encounter serves as an incentive to keep pace with Chelsea, who have stormed their way through to the third place.
Manchester United have won four consecutive Premier League home games – they have not won five in a row since March 2018, when Jose Mourinho was in-charge.
Although that five game winning streak came mid-season in 2018/19, that season’s top-flight opener pitched Leicester against United in an exciting encounter. It was only the second season in history to kick off on a Friday.
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Hosts start strong
Leicester City’s Daniel Amartey was the one to get things started off for Manchester United. The Ghanaian defender gifted an unfortunate penalty to the hosts the within the third minute, as Alexis Sanchez’s shot ricocheted off Wes Morgan before falling onto Amartey’s outstretched arms. Captain Paul Pogba made no error in dispatching the penalty in the top corner.
James Maddison and Kelechi Iheanacho came close to scoring but David De Gea’s presence was good enough to deny Leicester getting back in the game. The visitors were wasteful in front of goal as they squandered chances and coupled with United’s effective defending, equalizing turned into a chore.
As the half wore down and came to a close, Leicester played on the back foot and failed to capitalize on productive attacking play – something that would come back to haunt at the end of the match.
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Leicester's attempts go in vain
Pogba, Sanchez and Juan Mata teamed up at the start of the second half and almost put the hosts two goals up just as Mata finessed a shot wide of Kasper Schmeichel’s post, after what looked like a deflection off Morgan’s arm.
Moments later, Jamie Vardy forced Luke Shaw into an error on the right wing and sent a deft low cross to Iheanacho, who shot right in the path of in-form De Gea. Romelu Lukaku perhaps had the clearest chance of the match in a one-on-one with Schmeichel. The Leicester shot-stopper’s onrushing right foot saved the attempt on goal.
It didn’t matter in the least as United continued to pose goal scoring threat and full-back Shaw ended up scoring his first ever professional goal seven minutes from time. The Englishman flicked the ball past Ricardo Pereira to himself with his first touch and produced a fine finish on the half-volley from the left side.
Leicester scored their first of the night as the timer clocked in 90 minutes with an opportune goal. Pereira curled in a cross-cum-effort on goal which struck the left post, before Vardy came in charging to nod a header past De Gea. The consolation however was not enough to fuel Claude Puel’s men to a positive start to the season.
Matchday 36 this time will come as a significant clash between the two in light of the final league standings. Both teams used to sit next to one another behind Manchester City, until only last month, when the Foxes started slipping up due to a string of sub-par performances.
Leicester will look to better their 1 in 22 away victory record (5 draws & 16 defeats) in the Premier League against United in Manchester.