Key events
40 min: Isak so nearly makes it four! Leicester are making error after error after error. Justin inexplicably passes the ball to Isak well inside his own half, and the Swede moves towards goal, ambling in that fluid rhythm of his, before squirming a shot a yard wide. Hermansen wasn’t getting there, if Isak had found the corner, there.
38 min: A question for Newcastle fans. If you are Eddie Howe, are you taking off Isak/Tonali/Guimaraes/any other essential players at half-time? Or do you go for the jugular and focus on goal difference?
36 min: What wasn’t difficult to see was Faes’ defending, or lack of it. A pathetic attempt at a tackle on Joelinton in the lead up to that third goal.
GOAL! Leicester City 0-3 Newcastle United (Barnes 34)
Barnes starts and finishes this move to twist the knife against his former club! The 27-year-old springs forward on the counter attack, and feeds Isak. The Swede gets a shot off, which is blocked, but Joelinton is first to the rebound. He turns Faes inside out inside Leicester’s area, and the Brazilian tests Hermansen with a crafty effort. The Leicester keeper saves, but Barnes taps in the rebound! It was difficult to say at first glance if that was a lucky break for Newcastle or if every single Leicester defender was stationary and asleep as the ball came back out.
31 min: El Khannous pounces on a loose Newcastle pass and drives a full 60 yards into the space beyond Trippier, who was caught up the pitch. After an impressive carry from El Khannous, Schar eventually engages the Leicester youngster, who tests Pope with a stinging drive. Another Leicester corner, which comes to nothing, but this is better from the home side.
29 min: “I don’t think Newcastle want to stop at two,” emails Adauto Araujo. “Five more goals and they enter the Champions League zone. Your bolognese will have to wait”.
You’re quite right, Adauto. Goal difference could be absolutely crucial in the race for the Champions League. This is the table as things stand.
27 min: Leicester win a corner. Signs of life, perhaps? Dan Burn, the 6ft7in giant, heads the ball away for Newcastle, the pesky so and so.
24 min: Daka is having a torrid time. He failed to track back for Newcastle’s opener, a few minutes ago he passed the ball straight to Tonali and now he has fallen in a heap trying to win a free-kick, only to be told to get to his feet by referee Robert Jones.
22 min: Barnes has a chance to make it three … but Coady makes a crucial block! After Joelinton picked Ndidi’s pocket in midfield, and Guimaraes played a lovely ball out wide, Barnes advanced and attempted to curl one of his trademark far-post finishes. The ball was heading in, but Coady just got across to deflect the ball wide. Leicester heads are shaking, on and off the pitch.
20 min: Newcastle are utterly dominant.
17 min: Richard Hirst emails “is it coincidence that Wout Faes can be rewritten as U Waste Of …”
Think it’s unfair to single out Faes, the whole team can’t defend for toffee. But obviously it’s the people that are most noticeable that attract the most attention. And that glam-rock haircut is … noticeable.
Reminds me of a story I once heard from a youth team coach that explained that a lot of the academy players dyed their hair because it seemed they used to get more attention from scouts.
15 min: Yellow card for Ndidi, who brings down Livramento, and is swiftly reprimanded by the referee.
13 min: Shall we call it there? Leicester could do with saving some face, and Newcastle won’t want any more injuries. I’ve got a slow-cook bolognese that needs stirring. Or might we see a response from Van Nistelrooy’s side?
GOAL! Leicester City 0-2 Newcastle United (Murphy 11)
Newcastle double their lead in spectacular circumstances! Schar wins the ball on the half-way line and seeing Hermansen off his line, shoots! The Leicester keeper is completely caught out as the ball sails over his head, crashing against the crossbar, and Murphy is the only player to react, controlling the rebound and prodding home! Wow!
8 min: It appears that Wout Faes is more of an ethereal concept than a centre back. The Belgian is bundled over by Barnes and is lucky to be bailed out by Justin.
6 min: I’m still not entirely sure how is playing right wing for Leicester. Daka? I think it’s Daka, who was nowhere to be seen when Livramento made his way up Newcastle’s left wing for their goal.
4 min: Van Nistelrooy is furious on the sidelines, effing and jeffing. His side were completely caught out of shape on Newcastle’s first attack, and Kristiansen also missed his clearance at the back post, before Murphy pounced.
GOAL! Leicester City 0-1 Newcastle United (Murphy 2)
Boos ring out around the King Power Stadium as Newcastle score inside two minutes! This is such an easy goal to score, and such a poor one to concede. Barnes gets free on the left, Livramento makes an overlapping run – completely untracked by a Leicester player – and the full-back has time and space in the area to canter to the byline and feed a low cross across Leicester’s goal to the far post, where Murphy taps in!
1 min: Maybe 10 seconds into the game, Ndidi wins a flick on from kick-off and Vardy flashes a shot towards Pope’s near post and the Newcastle keeper tips it behind! What a start from the home side!
Peeeeeeeeeep!
We’re off in the East Midlands. A penny for the thoughts of Steve Cooper.
“It’s a 5am kick-off time here in Oz for the Islam Slimani Derby,” writes Chris Paraskevas. “I remember his heavily artistic interpretation of a ‘loan move’ to NUFC from Leicester some years back under Benitez, complete with red card and absolutely eff all else?”
Slimani! Of course! Still playing in Belgium with Westerlo, according to The Internet.
Van Nistelrooy also had a word for Jeremy Monga, describing the 15-year-old on Leicester’s bench as someone that possesses “game-changing qualities”.
Monga would become the second youngest player ever to grace the Premier League, if he comes on tonight.
Leicester manager Ruud van Nistelrooy speaks to the cameras:
Of course, the run of form is mark of confidence. When we have a defeat, what you want to do is get up and do the best you can. Every game is a new chance. The players are up for it, they are recharged and I have to give them credit for that. If you give up and stop believing, there is no chance of changing things.
Can we send these Southend fans to Washington DC?
“Not sure why an unchanged team has been named for maybe the fifth game in a row,” emails Leicester fan Graham Randall. “We’re due an absolute thrashing soon. We’ve been fortunate that recert teams have scored and then just had a practice match. Not sure what the answer is but it isn’t this manager. Absolutely clueless.”
It does seem very odd. And it’s not like he doesn’t have options on the bench. On their day, Mavididi, De Cordova-Reid, Ayew and Buonanotte can all do some damage, particularly the latter.
The Isak celebration, the disdainful thumb over the shoulder, is one of my current favourites. It’s not better than Benjani’s, but it’s very, very good.
The teams!
Leicester: Hermansen, Faes, Coady, Thomas, Justin, Ndidi, Soumare, Kristiansen, Daka, El Khannous, Vardy.
Subs: Stolarczyk, Okoli, Mavididi, De Cordova-Reid, Ayew, Ricardo Pereira, Skipp, Buonanotte, Monga.
Newcastle: Pope, Trippier, Schar, Burn, Livramento, Guimaraes, Tonali, Joelinton, Murphy, Isak, Barnes.
Subs: Dubravka, Ruddy, Wilson, Targett, Krafth, Osula, Longstaff, Miley, Neave.
In chastening news for Leicester, Joelinton and Isak are both fit to start. Anthony Gordon, however, doesn’t make Newcastle’s squad. Still, that’s a pretty strong XI for the visitors, even if the bench is a little light.
Further Harvey Barnes-related reading.
Preamble
Hello and welcome to the match known by absolutely nobody as the Ayoze Pérez Derby. There are not too many players that have made the not-so-famous switch between Leicester and Newcastle – I remembered Pérez, Chris Wood, Les Ferdinand, Keith Gillespie before Googling the rest, and found that I had forgotten Steve Howey, Nobby Solano, Steve Guppy, Danny Simpson. I’m sure there are others (my inbox is open for business, michael.butler@theguardian.com), but that’s quite enough nostalgia for one preamble.
All of that is a long-winded way of saying that Newcastle’s Harvey Barnes will return to his former club this evening. The winger has played regularly for Eddie Howe since the injury (and Carabao Cup final suspension) of Anthony Gordon and it’s expected that the latter will not start tonight, having only joined full training on Friday. To make matters worse for Howe, both Alexander Isak and Joelinton have picked up knocks and are doubtful for this evening, which is absolutely essential for Newcastle’s Champions League ambitions. The Magpies will leapfrog Manchester City and go fifth with victory here.
Leicester are almost certainly doomed. After the Foxes won their first game and drew their second match under Ruud van Nistelrooy in early December, they have lost all but one of their subsequent league games. That leaves Leicester 15 points adrift of safety, nearly double their points tally.
An unlikely win here would still be intriguing. Their next two games are very difficult – Brighton away and Liverpool at home – but Leicester do actually have a relatively kind run in: Wolves (a), Southampton (h), Forest (a), Ipswich (h), Bournemouth (a). That’s about as easy as it gets in the Premier League these days. Leicester have almost certainly run out of road, but in the interests of narrative, let’s say they still have a chance.
Kick-off: 8pm BST.
