Leeds away will be tough - so are Leicester City up to the task?
Let me drag you, kicking and screaming, back to April 2023.
When we sank into the bottom three at Selhurst Park on April Fool's Day and dispensed with Brendan Rodgers, we still had so many opportunities to climb out of the mire.
The chances presented themselves in pairs. First, there were home defeats against Aston Villa and Bournemouth under temporary management in early April. Then there were draws against fellow strugglers Leeds and Everton. Two points from those four eminently winnable games sealed our fate long before the calamity at the Cottage and what followed from there.
The memory of those Leeds and Everton games in particular was one of a team unable to cope with adversity. Unable to cope with physicality. Unable to cope with any kind of pressure whatsoever.
But a few minutes into that good, old-fashioned relegation six-pointer between two poor Premier League teams at Elland Road, I found myself thinking: "We're just so much better than them". It was, in fairness, a bit of a "we'll be fine". But it's easy to see why the thought occurred when you think who was expertly easing the ball through midfield in those opening stages - Youri Tielemans and James Maddison, both now starters in Champions League-chasing teams.
Our own match report sums it up well, James Knight stating that we had "the general air of a team that looked far too good for the relegation fodder they were up against". Then we had a magnificent Tielemans goal disallowed and conceded at the other end from a cross by someone who we'd had at Seagrave for a medical three months previously. Classic Leicester.
While Harvey Barnes joined Maddison and Tielemans towards the top of the top flight, the Leeds attackers that night have since marched off separately to places like Everton, Bournemouth and the Qatar Stars League (that's a real thing).
Both squads have been overhauled massively in less than a year. Wout Faes will be the only survivor from the Leicester lineup, while it sounds like Leeds will field just two of the eleven that started last April - goalkeeper Illan Meslier and left-back Junior Firpo - with Patrick Bamford an injury doubt.
The managers have changed too, Javi Gracia having replaced Jesse Marsch, who turned down the chance to replace Brendan Rodgers, who was instead replaced by Dean Smith, who was in turn succeeded by Enzo Maresca, who'll face Daniel Farke, who took over from Sam Allardyce.
While there won't be many left from those who started on our last trip to Leeds, Farke and Maresca will be relying on multiple players who were substitutes that night - Willy Gnonto, Crysencio Summerville and Georginio Rutter for the home side; Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, Dennis Praet and either Patson Daka or Jamie Vardy for your league-leading Foxes.
Both defences are good but goalscoring is the focus at the moment. Gnonto, Summerville and Rutter give Leeds the psychological edge, having between them scored 12 of their team's 14 goals so far in February.
In contrast, Daka and Vardy have scored 7 of Leicester's 10 goals in 4 games over the same period. But three of those were penalties and only one of the pair will play. No goals for Mavididi and none for Dewsbury-Hall, both of whom were withdrawn early last Saturday with Leicester desperately chasing the game.
None of that matters if Vestergaard and co can control the game like they do so often. How will Leicester 2.024 cope with a feverish Friday night Elland Road crowd though? What little evidence we have of high-profile games in the Championship this season suggests that despite the upheaval in the playing squad and a change in management, not a huge amount has changed when it comes to the big occasions.
The opening day comeback against Coventry and an early season visit to St Mary's aside, there are unhappy memories of chucking away the return game at the Ricoh, two late Ipswich equalisers and, of course, losing to Leeds.
Most Leicester fans would probably be delighted with a point from what will almost certainly be the most difficult fixture of the season.
Because let's face it - most of this season has felt like shooting fish in a barrel. That's down to wage bills, parachute payments and superior management and tactics to differing degrees. It's been a similar story for Leeds fans in recent weeks. It took them both a little bit longer to get sorted but our records in the past few months have been comparable. You play, you win, you move on. It's made for a nice change but it hasn't really felt like proper football.
Friday night will feel like proper football. Friday night will tell us an awful lot about this Leicester City side, just like last April made fools of anyone who thought we could coast to the finish line.
