The joint-best start in Championship history, you say? It’s a Leicester fiesta, writes Joe Brewin…

Following Leicester City this season is a bit like going on a family holiday as a teenager. You don’t really want to be there, you’re stuck spending your time with people who might not be your ideal choices, but equally: you’re not paying and who knows… maybe it’ll be fun?

And maybe, just maybe, you’ll fall in love with an Italian.

It might be slightly premature to declare undying devotion to Enzo Maresca after 10 games in a league we didn’t really want to be in – but right now, we’ll slam another shot of limoncello on the terrace and enjoy another night in the sun.

This team have now matched Sheffield United’s best ever start to a Championship season from 2005-06, blowing open a seven-point gap to third place in these opening stages. It’s easy to get lost in the idea that this should be happening to a club that won the Premier League title and competed in Europe for several seasons within very recent memory, but we all know things don’t necessarily work out that way. Plenty of other well-resourced sides have fallen this far and embarrassed themselves trying to claw their way back up.

The reasons why we found ourselves in this division to begin with could easily have become the reasons we struggled in an alternative universe. Thankfully in this one, though, we’ve got Maresca – a man with principles, pride, a prickly edge… and his devastatingly effective system.

Holmes and away

There’s a pattern with Leicester matches this season, and keeps ending in the same way: us winning. It doesn’t seem to matter how slow we start, or for how long that goes on – at some point, this team will keep coming at you until they get what they want. And they’ll keep going until the referee calls time on the whole thing.

That was the case once again on Tuesday night, against a Preston side coming to town in third place. The visitors certainly had their moments either side of half-time, combining defensive wherewithal with a threat on the break that really should have seen Duane Holmes put them ahead just before the break (we’ll casually skirt past Conor Coady getting done the wrong side on his Championship debut). But after the same player stung Mads Hermansen’s palms with a 25-yard rasper on 57 minutes, that was very much that for the visitors.

Up until that point, it had the classic hallmarks of One Of Those Nights for Leicester. Without playing especially poorly, we didn’t really look like scoring either – it took almost 20 minutes to carve out our only decent chance of the first half when Stephy Mavididi’s gorgeous flip-flap led to a chance for Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall.

Half an hour in, we’d had 82% possession… and two shots. Not coincidentally, both wingers had struggled – Mavididi and Abdul Fatawu generally flicked and tricked their way into brick walls, badly exposing the lack of creativity.

But back to the pattern: that first half was nothing new. We haven’t led at half-time in any of our five home games this season. In Maresca’s world, though, you stick to the plan. Hold and give, but do it at the right time – then hope a Preston defender will stick a leg out and set you up for 1-0. Finally after an hour, two minutes after Hermansen had been called into action for the only time all night, the breakthrough came.

Roll up, roll up…

Curiously, it was Wilfred Ndidi plundering the left inside channel that Dewsbury-Hall usually occupied – but this was perhaps the evidence that showed why. There was nothing fancy about the goal; James Justin slid a pass down the channel, Ndidi fed the ball across, only for Ali McCann to inadvertently knock it into KDH’s path before a fine finish from the Shepshed Lampard – but the speed of play had ultimately forced Preston’s defender into a botched intervention.

From that moment, this game was a circus. Going one down to Leicester is the death knell for teams this season: good luck getting the ball back. If you do, losing it in the wrong areas often just make things a whole lot worse.

For our second goal, Preston didn’t get the ball back. It was another fine example of what this team is capable of: a confident passing move across the field, great feet from Dewsbury-Hall to fashion space, out to Ndidi – this time on the right – and a first-time cross for his old pal Kelechi Iheanacho to finish with ease. Swoon.

Possession crept back up to 78%, and the goals were starting to flow. Preston, winners of six matches running earlier this season, were chasing shadows like kids trying to get a ball off their uncle in the garden.

The third goal could have been the best of the lot for different reasons. Highlight reels might miss Iheanacho’s ludicrous outside-of-the-boot ball out wide from deep in Preston’s half – not least as he was the one latching onto fellow sub Marc Albrighton’s cross trying to finish the move he’d started moments earlier. Freddie Woodman cut out what would have been a frankly mickey-taking ending, but could only beat it back out to Dewsbury-Hall for his second brace of the campaign.

Incredibly, this was our first home win this season by more than a goal. Three more of those and another clean sheet puts us top for both goals scored and conceded. No one has more goals and assists combined than Dewsbury-Hall. Ndidi is increasingly a joy to watch alongside him. We could bring on Iheanacho, Yunus, Cesare Casadei, Albrighton and Hamza Choudhury just because we could.

Pass us the limoncello…

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