Manchester City v Leicester City: Match Preview

December has been a bit up and down in the Premier League for Manchester City. Convincing victories over Burnley and Arsenal have been marred by a home defeat to derby rivals, Manchester United. Look outside of the Premier League bubble, however, and December has been a much more consistent display of Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City that we all know and love. Now we come up against Brendan Rodgers’s Leicester City, a team who are flying high and have turned the two-horse race everybody expected from this season into a three-horse race, as they’ve sandwiched themselves between City and Liverpool. As Liverpool remain in Qatar, this is a chance for the chasing pack to narrow the gap, at least for now.

Leicester are a testament to Rodgers and his managerial ability. For people like me who saw him as a bit of a David Brent-esque meme who only got close to the Premier League title at Liverpool because of Luis Suarez and only won things with Celtic because they’re Celtic (and to an extent, both of those things are true), his consistency with Leicester City has maybe drawn more attention to just how good of a coach he truly is. He’s even managed to cut out the Brent-isms. The solid defence he’s built, the best in the league to date, is proof that maybe he just had crap defenders at Liverpool. A back four of Clyne, Lovren, an ageing Skrtel and Alberto Moreno with Simon Mignolet behind them maybe wasn’t quite the rock-solid foundation title wins are built on and so maybe to characterise Brendan as an “attack first, defend later” coach was a tad unfair. This is, of course, no doubt helped by the fact that Çağlar Söyüncü and Jonny Evans, hell-bent on proving Manchester City fans wrong for daring to doubt his defensive capabilities, are having incredible seasons and the club has a pair of full-backs which rival those of Liverpool.

But how have Leicester looked against the “traditional” big six? Well, in the second game of the season they managed a 1-1 draw with a Chelsea side which was coming off the back of being battered 4-0 by United. They were beaten 1-0 at Old Trafford and lost 2-1 at Anfield. They did, of course, win both their games against the North London sides, with the caveat that both sides were in the midst of pretty dire runs of form at the time. Either way, they’ve not necessarily had it all their own way when it comes to games against the top sides. Leicester are coming off the back of a shock draw against Norwich in the league, followed by a 2-2 midweek draw against Everton in the Carabao Cup which was eventually settled by penalties. The starting line-up for the game was interesting – Söyüncü, Tielemans and Barnes each got a rest but nobody else did. In-form striker and obvious danger man, Jamie Vardy, played the full 90 minutes, as did both Pereira and Chilwell, along with James Maddison and Wilfried Ndidi. It’s clear they’ve got their eyes set on some silverware but, coming up against a Manchester City team who were heavily rotated midweek, this may prove to be a bold decision.

Jamie Vardy will almost certainly score against us. He always seems to do against virtually all of the top teams and our high defensive line is basically what Vardy feeds on, though he only has 4 goals in 10 games against City previously. We need to cut out the quick counter-attacks Leicester will no doubt deploy to avoid another United-esque result. Ederson will obviously come back into the squad, although he might be a bit tired after finding himself becoming a father for the second time this week. Garcia and Harwood-Bellis will make way for Fernandinho and Otamendi as there are no real alternatives, whilst I would expect Kyle Walker to come back into the squad in place of Cancelo. Zinchenko may remain in the squad if City are looking to control the game but Mendy returning to the line-up wouldn’t be a huge shock.

In midfield, I know what I want to see and I know what I probably will see. I want to see Rodri supporting De Bruyne and Foden, providing City with the much-needed energy in midfield it will require against a team which has the press of Leicester. Instead, I think I’m probably going to see Rodri and Gundogan supporting De Bruyne and anybody who’s watched City play with the double-pivot this season can probably have a guess at how well that will go. Foden’s finally had a run of three consecutive starts and, if Pep’s ever needed an excuse not to start him, the fact he’s played a lot of football recently is ready made for him. Gabriel Jesus will slot back in and Sterling will return to the left. The right is a coin-toss, it seems that Guardiola has about as much idea of who to pick in that position as I do. We have two out-of-form wingers who can’t get a run of games because every time they play badly they’re switched out in the following game. Pep should really be picking one and sticking with them for at least three or four games to see if they can find their feet, as I imagine that being thrown into one game, playing a 6/10 and then being taken out again in the following game isn’t particularly conducive to finding your best form.

Let’s not underestimate Leicester, they’re second in the table for a good reason. If the City we saw against Arsenal turn up, we’ll come away with the three points. If the Newcastle game or the United game City turn up, we’re going to be in for a painful day. The title is gone now, we’ve all acknowledged this, but we can’t let ourselves continue to drop points at the rate we have been since the start of the season.