Pep in and the step up: When Leicester City won at Manchester City
One of the things I remember most about Saturday 6th February 2016 was walking under the bridge that leads to the Etihad Stadium and seeing stalls with an array of scarves bearing the name and face of the Bayern Munich manager Pep Guardiola.
Five days earlier, Manchester City had announced Guardiola would replace Manuel Pellegrini in the summer of 2016. The BBC reported the news with the words:
“City could yet win four trophies under Pellegrini this season. They are already through to the final of the League Cup and are second in the league behind Leicester City.”
Another article went into depth about whether this meant Manchester City would become the superior club in the city for the foreseeable future. After all, United had won five Premier League titles in the preceding ten years, compared to City’s two.
“City can eclipse United, should they wish, with their financial firepower and they will use that to cash in on the appointment of one of the game's most celebrated and decorated figures. So are they now bigger? In footballing terms the answer is surely 'yes'.
If Manchester United fans felt they were in danger of being left behind before, those fears will only have increased with Guardiola's appointment at City. There was even a suggestion they held off making any sort of approach for fear of it appearing they had been outflanked and beaten to him by their neighbours.
Surely the odds on Jose Mourinho arriving at Old Trafford shortened once Guardiola was announced as City's next manager?
Once the noisy neighbours, City have proved by luring Guardiola they are currently the major footballing power in Manchester.”
Chelsea had also been interested in Guardiola to replace interim manager Guus Hiddink. Instead, they brought in Antonio Conte. Since then, they’ve been through Maurizio Sarri, Frank Lampard, Thomas Tuchel, Graham Potter, Frank Lampard, Mauricio Pochettino and now Guardiola’s former deputy and ex-Leicester manager Enzo Maresca. And still Guardiola continues at City, recently signing a new contract extension to take him to 2027 and eleven years in the Etihad dugout.
The day after Manchester City announced Guardiola’s arrival, they won 1-0 at Sunderland with a Sergio Aguero goal early in the first half. Exactly one hour later, 150 miles south of Sunderland, Leicester City were in wonderland. Jamie Vardy had just launched the ball over Simon Mignolet to put Claudio Ranieri’s men into the lead against Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool. A second Vardy goal ten minutes later ensured Leicester would travel to Manchester four days later as the Premier League leaders.
In an interview on the eve of the game, Marc Albrighton relayed the message from Claudio Ranieri to his players.
“The manager has told us that we need to enjoy the moment but make sure that we don’t waste what we’re doing because next year will be totally different.
Chelsea, Manchester United, even Liverpool, they’ll be back up to the standards they set previously, so it’s going to be a lot harder, so we might not get this position again. We need to take advantage of it now.”
Those three of the big six were all way off the pace. As for the others, the 2015/16 season is remembered by Tottenham and Arsenal fans as the one that got away.
But Manchester City led the chase with 14 games remaining.
Although star midfielder Kevin De Bruyne had been ruled out for 10 weeks in late January, they still boasted a huge number of household names. The front four that started against Leicester was: David Silva, Yaya Toure, Raheem Sterling, Sergio Aguero.
Aguero was last out of the tunnel for the home side. To his right, bringing up the rear on a walk he would later get to know very well, Riyad Mahrez glanced over at the Manchester City number ten.
Three minutes into the game, Aguero could only stand and spread his arms wide in disbelief as Mahrez’s free kick from the Leicester right was bundled into the net at the near post by Robert Huth.
Of all the games that summed up Leicester’s self-branded ‘fearless’ identity during these glory years, this was truly one of the greatest. Manchester City flooded forward in response, but that suited Leicester’s style of play perfectly. The counter attacks kept coming.
Three minutes after the interval, Mahrez scored that famous second goal. Many players, supporters and neutrals mark the moment the ball ripped past Joe Hart and crashed into the Manchester City net as the time they knew Leicester City would be Premier League champions.
If Leicester were already in dreamland, Huth’s second goal of the afternoon placed this game firmly in the realms of fantasy.
Aguero pulled a goal back and should have had a second himself to set up a nervier finish but Leicester saw the game out and made the statement needed.
There were twists and turns to come. Leicester lost in injury time at the Emirates the following weekend. On 2nd March, the night after West Brom had claimed a 2-2 draw on Filbert Way, the three chasing teams all lost: Manchester City 3-0 at Anfield, Arsenal 2-1 at home to Swansea and Tottenham 1-0 at West Ham.
Three days later, the North London derby ended all square and Leicester opened up a five-point gap which doubled by the end of the season.
Manchester City limped over the line, winning just one of their final five games to end the season in fourth place, beating rivals United to the final Champions League place on goal difference.
What happened next is a tale of two Cities - it can be illustrated fairly well simply by listing the two clubs’ three most expensive signings in the summer of 2016 along with their cost.
Manchester City: John Stones, Leroy Sane and Ilkay Gundogan. Cost: £105million.
Leicester City: Islam Slimani, Ahmed Musa, Nampalys Mendy. Cost: £57million.
The real kicker was a departure though as N’Golo Kante joined Antonio Conte’s Chelsea, meaning Leicester’s transfer net spend was around £20million, compared with Man City’s £150million.
The odds were always stacked against Leicester, and they stopped finding rough diamonds frequently enough to compete.
Despite that, they were a thorn in the side of Manchester City’s new manager - winning 4-2 on Guardiola’s first trip to Leicester in December 2016 and a remarkable 5-2 in front of an empty Etihad in 2020.
These were mere dents in the armour of the Manchester City juggernaut though. Glory, league titles and the long-awaited Champions League triumph followed.
After adjusting to the Premier League in the 2016/17 season, Manchester City have won six of the seven league titles since. Even when they finished a distant second to Liverpool in 2020, they scored more than 100 goals.
Towards the end of a chastening season, Guardiola now faces the task of restoring them to those levels. These days, sadly, Leicester City fans dream of being in the Premier League, never mind winning it.
