Leicester City vs West Brom: Five things we learned as Craig Gardner curbs the Foxes' title aspirations

Claudio Ranieri will struggle to hide the run-in nerves but could it be time for a return of 'The Tinkerman'?

Claudio Ranieri shows signs of pressure on the touchline last night – in contrast to his usually carefree attitude (Reuters)

Ranieri cannot disguise tensions of the title race

Claudio Ranieri’s seniority is the only common trait which he shares with Sir Alex Ferguson but that did not forestall the Italian from trying his hand at mind games this week. Tottenham Hotspur, not his table-topping Leicester City troupe, are favourites to lift the Premier League title, apparently. The Foxes have displayed peerless mental focus to unshackle themselves from the existential threat of relegation and sit atop of the game’s richest of leagues.

That steadfast self-belief was essential to overturning Salomón Rondón’s opener but was not enough to carve out a late winner. Ranieri would have you believe he spends his free time touring secluded Italian luncheonettes without a care in the world. His restless side-line capers, imploring the King Power faithful to stick with his hassled and hurried hosts, tell a contrasting story.

Is it time for the Tinkerman to make his comeback?

The Leicester wobble, it transpires, is slowly becoming a reality. Ranieri has thus far resisted the itch to tinker too much, an idiosyncrasy which some say cost him the Champions League at Chelsea, but the scheming Roman would be well advised to consider a return to type. The swashbuckling leaders know they will be curtailed, stymied and harassed by opponents from hereon in.

West Bromwich were always likely to be among the primary suspects in that regard. Perhaps a return to 3-5-2, deployed in the latter stages tonight and utilised so emphatically by Nigel Pearson, could prove a timely tinker to get Leicester over the line.

King set to play his part in the quest for the crown

News that midfield hustler N'Golo Kanté had succumbed to the hamstring injury which his efforts have foreboded all season could have represented a latent tree on the tracks for Leicester’s jaunt to the top. Ranieri, chuckling his way through another packed media briefing, insisted this merely creaks open the door of opportunity for Andy King.

The Wales international, who scored a fine second for Leicester, has lifted the League One and Championship titles with the club who he joined as a 15-year-old apprentice. Until now playing a cameo role in their remarkable transformation, King provides yet more nuance to the most romantic football fable of the campaign.

Berahino can still become the player West Brom want

Saido Berahino continues to provide the Baggies with a sprinkling of stardust, albeit a fleeting dose, amongst a side bulging at the seams with man-shaped blockades and battering rams. Hawthorns regulars have allowed their tea-time grumbles to become full-time remonstrance in recent weeks with Tony Pulis’s reliable survival-at-any-cost stratagem beginning to grate.

Their hesitancy to sell Berahino, who attracted the interest of the acclaimed Foxes scouting set-up in January, is based on the belief that their oft-derided centre-forward can blossom into something resembling this generation’s Tony Brown or Jeff Astle. If he can continue his recent renaissance - and keep the off-field histrionics to a minimum – he may do just that.

Foxes accept test of resolve with workmanlike approach

As with their most slender of scrapes against Norwich at the weekend, this was more a test of Leicester’s will than of their quality. To their credit, the hosts appeared to accept this fact with less of the injustice often etched across the faces of title rivals Arsenal or Manchester City in such circumstances. There was a job to do, a Pulis game-plan to discredit and a title bid to maintain.

It would be stretching the bounds of reality to suggest for a moment that Ranieri’s boys were anywhere close to their usual effervescent selves but the workmanlike attitude which got them here, to the precipice of Champions League football, remains intact at least.