Leicester City pulled a potentially season saving rabbit out of their hat with a 2 – 1 win at Old Trafford on Tuesday.
After the weekend’s humbling 4 – 2 defeat to Newcastle, it looked as if Leicester had bottled it again. Brendan Rodgers’ team have been one of the best in the country for the last two seasons.
However, the Champions League spot remains as yet elusive. Rodgers’ mission at Leicester City is to help them take the step forward from simply contending to competing.
With the win over Manchester United, Leicester are in the driving seat. Although their run in is the toughest, with games against Tottenham and Chelsea on the horizon.
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Leicester City need four points from those two games against Chelsea and Spurs to secure Champions League football.
“It’s an extremely important win for us,” said Rodgers in his post-match press conference. “It’s huge. We’re at 66 points now, which is what two of the sides that finished in there last season got.
“It’s a big step but there are still two games to go and the teams are still chasing us, so we still have work to do.”
He’s right about that. West Ham are eight points behind them and Liverpool are nine points behind them. Mathematically, Leicester could still slip up and their inconsistency this year means there is every chance of a pratfall.
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Some of those ominous failings were present in the win over United.
“We scored a brilliant goal, it was great technique, which got us off to a good start,” he said.
“We then played too slow and the speed of our game was poor. We were not precise enough, and when you are like that against a top side, they can hurt you. Any problems came from us losing possession.
“We got through to half-time, reinforced our pressing minds, gave more speed to our game, that allowed us to sustain the attacks much better. It was a great header by Cags.”
