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Leicester City 0 Manchester City 0: Foxes pass another test of their Premier League credentials

The frustration at full-time against Manchester City shows Leicester have completed their transformation from plucky underdogs to genuine contenders

Samuel Stevens
King Power Stadium
Wednesday 30 December 2015 14:05 GMT
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Kasper Schmiechel and Joe Hart joke after the draw between Leicester and Manchester City
Kasper Schmiechel and Joe Hart joke after the draw between Leicester and Manchester City

The indefatigable attacking football we have come to expect from Leicester may not have been on show but the 0-0 draw with Manchester City represented something new.

It is a measure of their success that dropping points against the Premier League title favourites should be treated as a missed opportunity rather than a valuable scalp.

Raheem Sterling, Kevin De Bruyne and Sergio Agüero all could have nicked it for the guests but so too could have Riyad Mahrez, Jamie Vardy or N’Golo Kanté. It was a match of flickering flashpoints rather than end-to-end thrills and spills.

But last night’s meeting between two title contenders, one in more familiar territory than the other, was always going to be buried in subplot and nuance. Free bottles of beer awaited fans outside the ground, softening the blow of £3.50 programmes and burgers in excess of a fiver.

Matchday programmes are football’s equivalent of old yellow love letters, buried away in lofts and garages. Speaking to one seller outside the King Power Stadium as the sun went down on 2015, a momentous year for Leicester and English football on the whole, the last 12 months invariably drops into conversation.

“It’s a miracle,” she says, after being a regular face on Filbert Way since the Foxes tumbled into League One just seven years ago.

An embodiment of their usually incisive, breakneck football this was not but Leicester’s spiky stalemate with City nonetheless confirmed their status as winners of the calendar year.

Level on points with leaders Arsenal, after starting 2015 cast-off at the bottom of the table, their year-long regeneration cycle is complete.

Not since the late 1970s has English football been forced to stand on by as the established order is swept aside in such an emphatic and peculiar manner. Brian Clough and Peter Taylor’s Nottingham Forest team existed in a bygone era; halcyon times where money was truly no object because nobody had any of it.

Raheem Sterling misses the target against Leicester City

Empires have since been built on foreign billions, spanning from Old Trafford to Stamford Bridge, leaving the masses to scrap it out below. Perhaps that is why rival supporters will rarely be found begrudging Leicester their recent success.

They look at what Claudio Ranieri has built on the foundations laid by Nigel Pearson and muse: ‘That could be us one day’.

The old guard are slowly losing their powers, Leicester’s Italian chief said last night, leaving the door ajar for someone, anyone, to gate-crash the top four. Crystal Palace, Stoke and Watford are well primed to be the story of 2016.

“2015 was a great year, but I hope that 2016 can better,” Ranieri said. “We are there, we would love to stay there.

“We know it is not our position, but we will fight. Every match is difficult for us. This league is very crazy...nobody wants to win the league. It's very strange.

“We're the basement and the other teams are a villa with a swimming pool. It's not easy for us but we want to fight with everybody.”

City boasted a starting line-up worth just shy of £300m and yet it is Mahrez and Vardy, who cost a combined £1.4m, who have stolen the headlines this term.

Mahrez twisted and turned, corkscrewing his body to make a mockery of £55m De Bruyne in the dying moments, as Vardy typically bamboozled his way through. It wasn’t vintage Leicester by any means but the ingredients were still there.

Manuel Pellegrini’s men were the better side on balance. On another evening, in front of a less hostile crowd and against more frail opponents, City would have strolled away from the East Midlands three points closer to the title they are expected to win. But that’s not how the script reads anymore.

The Chilean boss said: “We went for the three points and I think that we had more possession than Leicester and more attempts and did more things to win the game.

“But of course if you can't win then it is very important you don't lose and we were a very solid and consistent team defending against a very difficult team like Leicester who have players in a very good moment and that always scores goals.”

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