FOXES CLEAR OF THE PACK
Soyuncu winner opens up eight-point gap on rivals
A FOURTH delay to the inevitable proved beyond Manchester United as defeat by Leicester last night delivered the title to neighbours City.
Goals from Luke Thomas and Caglar Soyuncu sandwiched Mason Greenwood’s equaliser to give the visitors all three points.
If it was a bitter pill to swallow for United it was sweetened by the fact defeat also delivered a crushing blow to Liverpool’s hopes of Champions League football next season. Leicester’s win gave the Foxes a great chance of a top-four finish.
Victory moved them eight points clear ofWest Ham in fifth, having played one game more, and nine points ahead of Liverpool, who have two games in hand.
There may be a tinge of bitterness in Merseyside and London at the weakened team Ole Gunnar Solskjaer fielded.
But, having played Villa on Sunday and with Liverpool tomorrow, the United manager had made no bones about his intention to spare his big guns.
United’s star-studded bench featured nine first-team regulars. Winger Anthony Elanga made his debut and Amad Diallo his first Premier League start among 10 changes to the side which beat Villa.
The injured Harry Maguire sat behind substitutes Bruno Fernandes, Edinson Cavani and Paul Pogba in the stands.
It all handed Leicester a great chance to cement their hold on a top-four spot and, after just 10 minutes, they were on course when Luke Thomas scored only his second goal for the club.
It was one to grace a big stage, the full-back arriving at the back post to meet Youri Tielemans’ cross with a perfect volley just inside the angle.
Leicester’s lead lasted just five minutes before in-form Greenwood levelled.
Amad Diallo’s tenacity to outmuscle Thomas provided the assist but Greenwood still had work to do, ghosting past Caglar Soyuncu with a dropped shoulder and hitting a right foot shot low inside the far post.
But this was an error-strewn display from United’s second string.
Pressure built on them in the second half, Kelechi Iheanacho forcing a David De Gea block from a tight angle on the hour.
Solskjaer reacted not by shoring up the back line but by sending on Cavani and Marcus Rashford.
Their first action was to defend a corner at which Soyuncu lost Rashford and rose above Nemanja Matic to head Marc Albrighton’s corner high into the roof.
United sent on Fernandes to chase an equaliser but against a side as good as Leicester it always seemed too little too late.
MANCHESTER UNITED (4-2-3-1):
De Gea 6; Williams 5,
Tuanzebe 5, Bailly
5, Telles 6; Van de Beek 6,
Matic 7; Amad
6 (Fernandes 78,
6), Mata 6, Elanga
6 Rashford 65, 6);
Greenwood 7 (Cavani 65, 7).
Goal: Greenwood 15.
LEICESTER CITY (4-4-2):
Schmeichel 6; Castagne
6, Fofana 7, Soyuncu 7,
Thomas 7; Albrighton 7,
Tielemans 6, Ndidi 6,
Perez 5 (Maddison
65, 7); Iheanacho 6,
Vardy 6 (Choudhury 80).
Goals: Thomas 10, Soyuncu 66.