Key events
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!
