Full time: Leicester 1-2 West Brom
Peep peep! West Brom become the first team to win a Premier League match at Leicester since Arsenal in September 2015. They deserved their win, with James Morrison and Matt Phillips scoring excellent goals. Leicester are 14 points off the leaders Liverpool but well, who cares. The afterglow of 2015-16 will sustain their fans for a few decades yet. Thanks for your company, night.
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90+2 min The impressive James Morrison is replaced by Hal Robson-Kanu.
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90+1 min There will be five added minutes.
90 min Chris Brunt is booked for timewasting.
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88 min Gray’s inswinging cross drifts wide of the far post. Ben Foster solves a calculus problem before taking the goalkick.
87 min Robert Huth is replaced by Leonardo Ulloa. Gardner is booked for a good foul on the breaking Vardy.
86 min Foster bursts from his line to just beat Vardy to Slimani’s nice through pass.
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86 min Rondon, as Alan Smith points out on Sky, has put in an outstanding shift without the ball. That’s what the modern centre-forward needs to do so, as demonstrated most impressively by Simone Zaza.
85 min When you see Tony Pulis patrolling the touchline with such infectious enthusiasm, it’s hard not to wonder whether he makes love in that baseball cap.
83 min A West Brom substitution: Matt Phillips, who has played really well and scored the second goal, is replaced by Craig Gardner.
81 min Beautiful play from Mahrez, who beats Nyom on the right of the area and stands up a cross to King, who heads straight at Foster from 12 yards.
78 min After a dizzying run from Mahrez, Gray goes over in the box under challenge from McAuley. It looked innocuous, and there was no great penalty appeal, but there was a bit of contact.
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75 min If it stays like this, West Brom will jump from 17th to 11th in the game of Snakes & Ladders that is the Premier League table.
74 min Mild farce in the West Brom area. Dawson tries to clear Drinkwater’s dangerous low cross but kicks it against his standing foot, and Foster has to bounce to his left to stop the own-goal.
73 min “I’m not actually watching the game, but it does warm my heart to see Brunt’s name in the MBM,” says Matt Dony. “I’m glad he’s recovered and back in the team. He’s a fine, fine player, understated and under-appreciated. As someone with no strong opinion on WBA, either positive or negative, he’s someone I’ve always enjoyed watching. No, he’s not a complete footballer, but there’s some magic in that left foot. Like a Charlie Adam you don’t want to slap.”
Yes indeed. See also Snodgrass, R.
GOAL! Leicester 1-2 West Brom (Phillips 72)
West Brom lead again! Drinkwater played a dreadful backpass that ushered Phillips through on goal. He outpaced Morgan, drew Zieler and dinked the ball teasingly over him and into the net. Lovely finish.
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70 min Dawson’s header from a West Brom corner is palmed round by Zieler. It might have been going wide anyway but he played it safe. The resulting corner almost leads to West Brom’s second, with Phillips thighing it towards goal and Simpson clearing off the line.
67 min Drinkwater plays a good pass to Mahrez, who tries one stepover too many - his 14th - and loses possession. Leicester look very dangerous now though.
66 min Another Leicester substitution: Demarai Gray replaces Ahmed Musa.
64 min King plays a great pass to Mahrez, who beats Evans with a stepover and clips a cross that is headed behind for a corner.
61 min Leicester, stung into action by going behind, are on top for the first time. The West Brom players must learn the dangers of scoring a goal.
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60 min Huth has a header kicked off the line by Phillips, though he’d been penalised for using a West Brom defender as a stepladder.
57 min King plays a good pass inside Dawson for the speedy Musa, who eschews the shot and tries to find Vardy instead. His attempted cutback takes a nick off Evans and away from Vardy. That was a great chance.
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GOAL! Leicester 1-1 West Brom (Slimani 55)
Leicester equalise with a simple goal. Mahrez curled in an excellent ball from the right towards Slimani, who looked offside but strained his neck muscles to thump a header back across Foster. That’s another excellent finish. The replay shows it was extremely tight as to whether he was offside or not.
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54 min Here’s Ian Copestake. “As a break from getting emails from bile-filled, conspiracy theorists, you should definitely cover US election night.”
GOAL! Leicester 0-1 West Brom (Morrison 52)
James Morrison gives West Brom the lead, steering an excellent header across Zieler from Phillips’ right-wing cross. He has been the best attacking player on the pitch and that was a fine goal.
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51 min Rondon produces a beautiful first touch to kill a dropping ball in the box, but Huth blocks his subsequent shot.
49 min Vardy harasses Evans into conceding a corner. West Brom counter from that corner, with Dawson eventually breaking beyond Fuchs and into the box. Simpson comes across to make a crucial tackle.
47 min Nyom earns West Brom an early corner. Brunt makes a total Horlicks of it.
46 min Peep peep! Leicester begin the second half, kicking from right to left. They didn’t have a shot on or off target in the first half.
Half-time substitution Jamie Vardy is coming on for Shinji Okazaki.
“I think we need to see these sort of sterile Leicester performances as the necessary manure on the strawberries of their victory in the cup with the big ears (or as it will be renamed, the Lineker),” says Ian Copestake.
The necessary manure for a necessary manure for a...
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“Hawrite Rob!” says Ryan Dunne. “Surely I can’t be the only one hoping one of the MBM regulars like yourself will be promoted to do the Clinton/Trump Guardian live blog? If you can do a 20-game Clockwatch, a wee 12-hour nightshift political liveblog is probably a breeze, plus you guys are used to covering last minute twists, narrating lulls in action, and pepping things up with pertinent YouTube clips. Hell the Presidential Election has even got Red Team v Blue Team like those tactically intriguing Liverpool/Chelsea games you used to get all the time!”
Are you stuck in 2005 like Paul Spector? Light-heartedness became a criminal offence in 2009, Ryan.
“West Brom in black & white stripes?” asks Peter Coombs. “Like Notts County and Juventus? Not navy blue and white like… er… West Bromwich Albion? At least they haven’t changed to an ‘away’ or ‘third’ kit for no good reason.” Oof, my mistake. But I must say: that is a very, very, very, very, very dark blue.
Half time: Leicester 0-0 West Brom
Don’t ever put me through that again.
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43 min West Brom have been the better team, with Morrison providing a soupcon of attacking class, but it has essentially been a dog of a match.
40 min “Who’s in the free eight roles for WBA,” asks Alex Netherton, “or are they just playing with one?” Morrison is more of an autonomous 8.5 IMHO.
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37 min Strictly between us, this game is not entirely compelling.
34 min Musa demonstrates his ridiculous speed, burning Dawson off with ease down the left. He gets into the box but his cross hits a defender and rebounds off him for a goalkick.
32 min “It’s a strange time to be a WBA fan at the moment,” says Adam Timmins. “The majority of fans are indifferent to Pulis at best and hostile at worst; yet he’s just been given a new one-year deal. We have new owners, but no-one seems quite sure how that’s going to pan out. No-one’s quite sure what the future holds...”
I think he deserves a lot more respect. I suppose it’s easy to say that from afar. But I do think the chances of you being relegated will increase significantly when he leaves.
29 min Drinkwater plays a good ball wide to Mahrez. He faces up Nyom and then curls a beautiful inswinging cross into a very dangerous area. Slimani misses with an attempted diving header, and McAuley behind him stretches to clear.
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27 min Morrison, the best player on the pitch so far, plays a good wide to Dawson. His cross skims across the area, just evading Rondon.
26 min And here’s some West Brom porn.
23 min This feels really low-key, especially for a match involving the champions. In lieu of any notable action in 2016, here’s some Leicester porn from 1996. If Suarez and Messi did this...
21 min A good curling cross from Fuchs skims off the head of Slimani, who mistimed his jump slightly at the far post.
19 min “You know how when you get dumped or laid off you obsessively recollect the hours preceding the bad thing and bemoan your naiveté?” says Phil Podolsky. “Not an ideal analogy for what I’m trying to get across here, as we know full well on Tuesday we’ll wind up with one of a Wall Street warmonger and Donald Trump, but we might still look back wistfully on this MBM.”
We’ll always have Leicester’s two banks of four, an emblem of the good times.
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18 min It’s all West Brom. The influential Morrison plays an excellent through ball towards Brunt, who is just beaten to the ball by the outrushing Zieler.
17 min Fuchs makes a crucial defensive header to deny Brunt a clear chance. It came after a fine break from West Brom. Morrison sprayed the ball out left to Phillips, who curled a nice cross towards Brunt at the far post. He would have had a simple headed chance from six yards but for Fuchs’ intervention.
13 min The Leicester keeper Zieler faffs over a backpass and hits his clearance into the back of Rondon, from where it loops over the bar for a goalkick.
12 min Fuchs goes down for a little while after wearing Dawson’s right elbow. It wasn’t deliberate - they were both jumping for a high ball - but it was a fair smack.
11 min A good spell of possession for Leicester until Mahrez overhits his ball towards Slimani.
7 min West Brom have been the better side so far. Even this early in the season, motivation for Premier League games must be an issue for Leicester.
3 min An early chance for West Brom, with Phillips picking up a loose ball and drilling an excellent cross shot that draws a superb, subtle save from Zieler. It was barely perceptible at first sight, but replays showed a fingertip touch that diverted the ball wide of the post.
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2 min The Leicester fans sing “champions of England, you’ll never sing that” to the supporters of 1919-20 champions West Brom.
1 min Peep peep! West Brom kick off from right to left. They are in black-and-white stripes; Leicester are in blue.
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Some pre-match reading
Team news
Leicester (4-4-2) Zieler; Simpson, Morgan, Huth, Fuchs; Mahrez, King, Drinkwater, Musa; Slimani, Okazaki.
Substitutes: Hamer, Schlupp, Amartey, Gray, Albrighton, Ulloa, Vardy.
West Brom (4-2-3-1) Foster; Dawson, McAuley, Evans, Nyom; Yacob, Fletcher; Phillips, Morrison, Brunt; Rondon.
Substitutes: Myhill, Galloway, Gardner, Leko, Field, Robson-Kanu, Wilson.
Referee His name is Craig Pawson.
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Preamble
Hello. All the football Einsteins knew Leicester would not so much defend their title as let it drift away. That’s just what happens with surprise champions. As with Leeds in 1992-93 and Blackburn in 1995-96, almost all of Leicester’s problems have been away from home. Their form at the King Power Stadium has been fine, with three wins and a draw against Southampton, and most will expect them to beat West Brom today.
Tony Pulis’s side drew here last season, and their innate solidity gives them a chance in any game. They are 17th in the table but a win would put them 11th - and above Leicester.
Kick off is 4.30pm
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