Leicester City put up an inspiring performance on Saturday afternoon to come from behind to defeat Manchester United 4-2 at the King Power stadium, ending their visitors' 29-game unbeaten run away from home.
Brendan Rogers welcomed back Johnny Evans for his first premier league game since April as part of the changes made to his team. The former Manchester United defender had been missing in action first due to injury, then illness.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer made five changes to his team, three of which were forced; Raphael Varane picking up an injury on international duty as France claimed the UEFA Nations League title, while Fred and Edison Cavani were unavailable due to their late involvement with their countries during the break.
The hosts started on the front foot and threatened in the opening 10 minutes, when Kelechi Iheanacho caught Paul Pogba napping on the ball. With options in Jamie Vardy and Youri Tielemans, he opted to go for the latter out wide, whose cross towards the former in the box was well cut out by Harry Maguire, who was an initial doubt for the game.
It was the visitors, however, who opened scoring in the 19th minutes thorough Mason Greenwood. Bruno Fernandes was cornered with nowhere to go. He simply slid the ball to the right for Greenwood, who cut in on his left foot to drive one into the far corner.
Leicester responded with a counterattack that saw James Maddison release Timothy Castagne on goal. The defender had all the time in the world, but couldn't manage to make anything of it, before Nemanja Matic blocked him away from goal.
Manchester United almost doubled their lead in the 28th minute. Jadon Sancho found himself in space on the left side of attack, despite the shouts for offside by the Leicester players, the flag did not go up and he teed up Cristiano Ronaldo for a one-time shot, but his effort was denied by Kasper Schmeichel.
Leicester were not going to be denied in the 31st minute. Manchester United tried playing out from the back. A lack of concentration from Maguire made him unaware of Iheanacho, who stole the ball of the giant defender, before cutting it back for Tielemans. The Belgian midfielder chips one over David de Gea towards the far post for the equalizer.
They almost got their second just before the half time whistle as Iheanacho played on by Tielemans on the edge of the United box saw his effort just off the mark.
It was the hosts who looked like taking the lead after the restart. Ricardo Pereira caught Sancho on the ball and released Iheanacho, who could only fire his effort straight at De Gea.
United got a chance of their own minutes later. An Evans' clearance didn't go too far, allowing the on-rushing Matic hit it first time. It went just over the bar to the relief of Schmeichel, who was beaten an scrambling towards the ball.
The pressure was on from Manchester United and five minutes after the hour mark they should have gone ahead when Greenwood's effort came off the post, after a scramble in the Leicester box from failure to clear a Bruno Fernandes cross.
Much as expected, an end-to-end game, Matic lost the ball in a very dangerous position and Tielemans beats Pogba before letting one fly. Destined towards goal, De Gea got his fingertips to parry against the poll.
There was no denying the home team in the 78th minute. Two substitutes, Patson Daka and Ayoze Perez heavily involved. Daka had his effort saved by the legs of De Gea and the ball kept bouncing around in the box, before finally coming off Perez and into the path of Caglar Soyuncu, who was glad to fire home from close range. A quick VAR check couldn't deny the Turkey defender his goal.
It should have been game over less than a minute after taking the lead, when Daka, who had just come on for Iheanacho, was slid through on goal by Jamie Vardy. The Zambian saw his effort saved by the legs of De Gea, before Maguire played it our for a corner.
Another substitute would impact the game, this time on the Red side of the divide. Marcus Rashford drew his team level. A lovely ball over the Leicester defence from Viktor Lindelof found Rashford, who had managed to stay onside between two Leicester defenders and before they could close him down he got his shot away, well above Schmeichel into the back of the net.
From the restart, Leicester regain the lead. The ball from the centre went straight to Castagne on left side. He was tackled hard by Aaron Wan Bissaka, however, the referee played the advantage as Perez picked the ball, running towards goal, before passing it back out with the outside of his boot to Vardy, who hit the ball first time on a half volley into the top corner, giving De Gea no chance.
The momentum had swung in favour of the home side and they continued to cause problems for Manchester in the final five minutes. They had De Gea to thank as he went down to save a low strike from Perez.
The three points were finally assured in the first minute of added time as Tielemans' cross from a free kick on the left side was missed by everyone at the near post, traveled down to the far post into the feet of Daka who didn't mind scoring with both legs as he scrambled the ball into the back of the net.
**Concluding Thoughts**
Another cause to worry for Manchester United and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer as they have now lost four of their last seven games in all competitions. Their next game is a tricky home tie against Atalanta in the Champions League.
Much of the week has been about Leicester City boss, Brendan Rodgers, who has been linked with the Newcastle job, to succeed Steve Bruce, following the takeover of the club by a Saudi Arabian outfit.
It was good to see that the manager still has his head together to pull off a victory that marked the first time since 1901 that Leicester have won three consecutive games against the Reds in all competitions.
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