NOW you’ve got to believe it – Leicester City can win the Premier League after the Foxes ran riot in the majestic Manchester City hen coup.
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| Riyad Mahrez celebrates scoring his side's second goal of the game with his team-mates |
Almost 12 months ago Leicester departed from this stadium following a 2-0 defeat marooned at the foot of the table, seven points from safety.
Relegation was staring them in the face only for an escape of Harry Houdini proportions to ensure their status amongst the elite.
Enter Claudio Ranieri the dream maker and now on the back of an exhilarating run of just one defeat in the last 18 games Leicester stand on the threshold of one of the greatest achievements in football history.
Before the game Leicester’s celebrated fan Gary Lineker had tweeted: "This top of the table business is bloody nerve-racking."
Well Gary it certainly beats being immersed in a grim relegation fight. Very soon reading out the Premier League table on BBC TV’s ‘Match Of The Day’ will be the equivalent of breathing in helium, his voice. like his team going higher and higher.
And who can blame him or supporters of similar persuasion – come to think of it most neutrals as well who would love Leicester to stick their fingers right up the noses of the establishment.
It’s off to Arsenal next week with a six-point lead and the bookies actually taking Ranieri’s side seriously by making them the new title favourites.
For a team whose success is allied to speed and spontaneity their electric start to this game indicated that you can add fearlessness to their growing portfolio of attributes.
If this was the 90 minutes – the crunch when we would finally discover whether Leicester’s title challenge was fact or fiction – then in terms of laying an early marker of intent they don’t come much better than this.
Barely three minutes gone and the mercurial Riyad Mahrez was on the prowl, his pace suckering Aleksandar Kolarov into a foul on the edge of the area.
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| Robert Huth giving Leicester the lead after just three minutes at the Etihad Stadium |
Worse was to follow for nervy City as the Algerian – one of the stand out performers of this season’s Premier League – struck a low free-kick which saw Robert Huth bundle past Joe Hart with the aid of a deflection off the grounded Martin Demichelis.
Ranieri simply stood impassively in the Manchester rain with only a beanie hat for protection as he surveyed the carnage his ebullient side had just inflicted on many observers’ title favourites.
Fire burns in the bellies of players who have been constantly defying the odds over the past months and as their fans jokingly chanted 'We’re staying up' Mahrez and company went for the City jugular.
The livewire Jamie Vardy, always lurking on the shoulder of the last defender with intent, was given a sight of goal but his run was halted by Hart with Nicolas Otamendi blocking the follow up from Shinji Okazaki.
Another instinctive link up at full pelt between Mahrez and Danny Drinkwater saw the former Manchester United man denied by Hart who must have wondered why his defence kept on going walk about.
When the early Foxes storm began to subside City who always carry a threat in Sergio Aguero began their recovery mission, David Silva slaloming into the box before firing wide while Pablo Zabaleta was tripped by Christian Fuchs – the Argentinian arguing with some justification the offence should have warranted a penalty rather a free-kick just inches outside the area.
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| Riyad Mahrez firing the Foxes into a 2-0 lead against Man City |
Leicester replicated their stunning start by going further ahead just three minutes after the break – the goal endorsing the growing prowess of the mercurial Mahrez.
When a City move broke down Drinkwater quickly found another of Leicester’s bargain buys, N’Golo Kante and danger for the home side was just moments away. In a blur of attacking aggression Kante surged forward allowing Mahrez to take over.
As Zabaleta and Otamendi dived in the fleet footed Fox simply kept his cool and his feet before dispatching an unstoppable shot past Hart.
If that was greeted by hysterical celebrations from the travelling Leicester fans camped behind the goal on three levels of this outstanding stadium imagine the noise which followed Huth’s second goal and his team’s third.
It couldn’t have been easier, City’s deadweight defenders unable to react from a Fuchs corner, Huth rising to send his header looping into the net.
Aguero managed to grab a late goal with a header from a cross from substitute Bersant Celina but by then many City fans had headed for the exits.
Asked whether the announcement of Pep Guardiola’s had unsettled his players City boss Manuel Pellegrini admitted: “It would be easy for me to say yes but really we have been beaten by a side who played better than us.”
Manchester City: Hart 7; Zabaleta 5, Otamendi 4, Demichelis 4, Kolarov 5; Fernandino 6, Toure 5 (Fernando 52, 6), Delph 6 (Iheanacho 52, 5); Silva 7 (Celina 77, 6); Sterling 6, Aguero, 7.
Leicester City: Schmeichel 7; Simpson 6, Morgan 7, Huth 7, Fuchs 7; Drinkwater 7, Kante 7, Albrighton 6(Dyer 86); Mahrez 9 (Gray 77, 6), Vardy 8, Okazaki 7 (Ulloa 81).
Referee: A. Taylor.
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