Yawn! If there was an empty stadium,

CITY VERDICT CITY WILL SEE DRAW AGAINST STRUGGLERS AS TWO MORE POINTS LOST IN EUROPEAN CHASE

MIDWAY through the second half, the cameras inside the empty King Power Stadium cut to injured right-back Ricardo Pereira in the stands. He was yawning.

In a single moment, that summed up the 90 minutes on Filbert Way as Leicester City returned home for the first time in three months.

Like they did with the draw at Watford, they will see the stalemate with Brighton as two points dropped in the race for a Champions League space.

But it could have been three points dropped if not for Kasper Schmeichel’s penalty save, the Dane denying Neal Maupay after a quarter of an hour in the game’s best, and arguably only clear-cut chance.

City struggled throughout, misplacing passes, miscontrolling the ball, and failing to muster any kind of serious threat around the Seagulls area.

There was no stunning strike from their full-back to see them find the net this time, and they now head into the FA Cup quarter-final with two draws, and no morale-boosting win, to their name.

A second game in four days off the back of three months without any prompted Rodgers into some surprise changes, with Claude Puel’s favoured Papy Mendy-Wilfred Ndidi midfield making an appearance for the first time under the current boss.

It could have been a message to Mendy to say that if he does agree to a new deal - and talks are ongoing - he will get game-time next season.

The Frenchman, on his 28th birthday, was not the only City player making a rare start. Demarai Gray, fresh from his excellent cameo at Watford, made his third start in the league this season, while Kelechi Iheanacho was brought in to form a two-man frontline.

The change in system and personnel did not have the desired effect, with City sloppy, sluggish and second-best.

The first, and best, chance of the first period came from the penalty spot after 14 minutes.

The long ball to Aaron Connolly caused City problems throughout the first 45 minutes and although James Justin kept pace, a tangle of legs saw the ball squirm through, and then another tangle saw James bring down the Irishman. Maupay stepped up and fired low to Schmeichel’s right, but the Dane got down quickly, doing superbly to not only save the spotkick but ensure there was no opportunity for a rebound. Brighton continued to look the sharper of the two sides and after a mixup between Ndidi and Mendy, Connolly was in again, Caglar Soyuncu doing enough to put him off as he fired goalwards.

The best indication of how poorly City were playing is that it took until the 31st minute for Jamie Vardy to get his second touch of the ball.

Even when City did create a chance for themselves, at the end of the first half, it came more through luck than skill, as Gray and Ndidi’s shots eventually deflected onto Soyuncu’s head, the Turk unable to flick it into the corner.

City improved ever so slightly in the early period of the second half, and a chance did fall to Saturday’s goalscorer Ben Chilwell.

The left-back cannot hit a ball quite as sweetly with his right foot though and he skewed his 15-yard volley well wide.

As time ticked on, Rodgers made changes, Youri Tielemans, Harvey Barnes, and Ayoze Perez coming on with 20 minutes or so to play. The substitutions worked to an extent in that it swung the momentum narrowly City’s way.

They had the pressure, but not the chances.

With Brighton restricting any opportunities from inside the box, James Maddison tried his luck from outside the area.

The first was wild, the second was blocked, the third, a free-kick, was a few yards over.

The final 10 minutes were spent inside Brighton’s half as City attacked the Kop but, unlike at Vicarage Road, no breakthrough came, although a penalty shout for handball was waved away.

For the rest of the week, they’ll now be checking over their shoulder to see if any of their top-four rivals make up ground. If it’s down to six points with seven games to play, it may get a little anxious down Filbert Way.

City will now be checking over their shoulder to see if any of their top-four rivals make up ground