Foxes in August - Tight wins and remarkable statistics

Damon Carter -After spending a summer desperately trying to ignore all things Leicester City, we all knew settling down into the 2023-2024 season was never going to be an easy task. Not only did we have a new managerial set-up and a whole host of new players replacing the old We must now look for our highlights package on ITV4 on a Saturday night and pay even more attention when Owynn Palmer-Atkin learns about the next opponents on the “When You’re Smiling” podcast.

6th August - Foxes 2 Them lot off the M69 - 1

What worse kind of hell for a return to the Championship than playing a resurgent Coventry City who can’t stand us and are showing signs of returning to former glories? The foxes had lost some massive names (Maddison, Barnes, Tielemans, Soyuncu) and had some notable names not included in the matchday squad strongly linked away. Bizarrely the likes of forgotten man Jannick Vestergaard started alongside some new names like Mads Hermansen, Stephy Mavididi and promising prospect Kasey McAteer.

The Sky Blues started off strongly and were finding themselves in dangerous areas but were restricted to long range efforts and blocked shots. Early in the second half Kyle McFadzean exposed Leicester’s terrible set piece defending with a header from a corner to leave the home end wondering when their nightmare would end. But Enzo Maresca’s men seemed far more assured and stuck to the game plan of intricate possession football trying to tease the opposition out of position. The mostly patient fanbase were rewarded when Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall rose like a salmon to head in an equaliser from Dennis Praet’s cross, releasing relief around the King Power. Later Dewsbury-Hall found himself with too much room in the box and curled a left footed shot into the top corner to send the home support crazy at something they hadn’t seen in a long time, a late winner.

REMARKABLE STAT – Including West Ham last season these were the first consecutive home league wins for over a year

9th August – Brewers 0-2 Foxes – Carabao Cup 1st round

Goals from Kelechi Iheanacho and Wilfred Ndidi gave us a comfortable win, that with only 3 shots on target is almost perfectly efficient.

REMARKABLE STAT – Iheanacho has scored 10 career league cup goals

12th August – Terriers 0-1 Foxes - Championship

Nothing says ‘You’ve arrived back in the Championship’ like a game against a Neil Warnock eleven. Their style backfired though as Leicester created various chances. Stephy Mavididi was a constant threat as he chipped away on his wing. Dewsbury-Hall played him in with the game ticking into the 73rd minute. Mavididi sold his opponent a stepover which opened enough space for him to blast a shot through goalkeeper Lee Nicholl’s legs and send the away fans delirious and Warnock clutching at cliches.

REMARKABLE STAT – The first 3 league wins in a row since January 2021

19th August – Foxes 2-1 Bluebirds – Championship

The performances kept improving albeit in small increments. The visit of Cardiff City seemed to tick along relatively smoothly with the foxes patient and precise passing game drawing the opposition out. Kelechi Iheanacho smashed a beautiful curling shot onto the upright before Wanya Marcal hammered in his first ever professional goal The team were making openings and hitting their stride in comfortable fashion in the first half. However, Aaron Ramsey hit a goal of unreal quality in a half Cardiff City hadn’t had a sniff of The Bluebirds inevitably grew in quality in the second half and if Yakou Meite had been more composed, Cardiff might have left the King Power with more than a point. But even that was wishful thinking when debutant Cesare Casadei smashed home the winner.

REMARKABLE STAT – The first time the club has ever opened the season with 4 wins in a row – remarkable that they can exist for nearly 150 years and only have just got around to this.

26th August – Millers 1-2 Foxes – Championship

A visit to the New York stadium for the first time for Leicester City and another seemingly tight game with Maresca’s boys continuing to stick to the plan by threading careful passes through the opposition lines It started off in bleak fashion with Rotherham’s Jordan Hugill heading the lead from a set piece (yes that old habit is becoming a reoccurrence) before the linesman ruled it out Minutes later Leicester delivered a sucker punch when Kelechi Iheanacho dinked a perfect cross to the back post for Kasey McAteer to head home and send the team into the break with a lead.

Leicester’s ponderous nature led to Rotherham’s equaliser from a teased cross that Fred Onyedinma glanced in. But patiently Leicester probed and late on, once again found their opening. Callum Doyle found some space on the left-hand side and cooked up a delicious cross field pass to McAteer who after a few unsure touches turned inside on his left foot and powered a curling shot into the corner in front of the net in front of a fervent away following

REMARKABLE STAT – The first time Leicester have won 5 league games in a row since 2019.

29th August – The Rovers 0-2 Leicester City – Carabao Cup – Round 2

A rematch of the Wembley League Cup final in 2000, but a much more muted affair and one that the foxes kept reasonably comfortable. Harry Winks nearly opened his Leicester City account with a fizzing long range half volley Whilst the Foxes tried to get into gear, Tranmere saw their own longrange efforts from Dan Pike, Josh Hawkes and Kieran Morris saved smartly and comfortably by Stolarczyk.

Into the second half Casadei set up Wilfred Ndidi for a nonchalant pinged finish in off the post, before the Nigerian sat up a lovely cross for the familiar sight of a Jamie Vardy header greeted gleefully by the blue army faithful Into the next round and a perfect August completed without really showing the true potential of the squad. Regardless of where we end up, it’s just nice to see the team winning again.

Damon Carter

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