Well, the first half was dreadful. The second half was a bit better, featuring two good goals, some needle and West Brom parking their not insubstantial bus. One team was trying to play football, but their chief problem was that they weren’t very good at it. Iheanacho was totally anonymous and Okazaki will perhaps feel aggrieved he didn’t feature instead.
Thanks for joining me for this, you terrible, terrible masochists.
90 min + 4: West Brom are frustrating Leicester as they attempt to burst forward, getting feet in and stopping their fluency. But eventually Mahrez has a burst into the box - but sees only West Brom players waiting. He can’t find space for a shot.
90min + 2: Vardy miscontrols the ball out on the left wing, allowing it to roll under his boots and into touch. There will be a last throw of the the dice from Shakespeare, he’s bringing on Andy King.
90 min: Leicester attempt to fizz the ball forwards, but there’s the usual resilience from West Brom. Five added minutes here, news of which is greeted with a cheer by the Leicester fans.
89 min: Mahrez plays a slide rule ball into Vardy int the box, but he can’t control it. The move breaks down with a Fuchs foul. It gives West Brom the chance to slow things down - they take a good minute over the free-kick.
86 min: Leicester patiently build, using their new 5-3-2 formation to attack West Brom with width. It’s patient buildup play before Mahrez finally puts in a wonderful ball for Slimani, but Hegazi is there to clear. If anyone is going to score a winner now, it feels like will be Leicester.
84 min: The mood at the King Power has changed completely. The crowd are loud and excited as their side pile on the pressure. Pulis responds by bringing on McAuley and McClean, the well known detective duo. Rodriguez and Chadli make way.
82 min: Fuchs rakes a long cross into the box and Slimani is close to getting on the end of it. Myhill leaps to claim though. A moment later, he is tested again as Vardy races onto a through ball. But the keeper is so injured, he can only roll the ball out for a throw in rather than kick long. Scenting blood, Maguire fires a long shot at him, which is punched behind for a corner. Real urgency to Leicester now.
77 min: Gibbs crosses from theleft and Rondon sticks his head in down low and is perhaps lucky that Maguire’s boot doesn’t catch him as the defender clears. Leicester immediately counter, but the move ends with Ndidi scuffing a shot wide from distance.
74 min: The ball falls to Ndidi on the edge of the box. “SHOOT,” shout the crowd, but he doesn’t and eventually Albrighton clumps a cross long and into touch. Icheancho off for Slimani, Simpson off for Chilwell as Shakespeare switches formation.
72 min: Leicester launch the ball into the box, prompting a bout of head tennis. Eventually, one of the Leicester attackers gets himself offside and Myhill, struggling to punch the ball clear, blows a sigh of relief.
70 min: Albrighton and Fuchs combine well down the left, before finding Mahrez on the edge of the box. He can’t turn, though, and eventually has to settle for a corner.
69 min: Schmeichel looks rattled. He makes a good claim from a West Brom cros from the left wing, but then rolls the ball out badly to Albrighton, leaving the wing short. He has to dive into to a tackle and earns a yellow card. Chadli tkes a cunning, disguised free-kick, passing the ball to Krychowiak who hammers a shot into a defender.
67 min: Albrighton sets Mahrez free up the right but Hegazi cuts out the ball. Leicester, by hook or crook, plug away up the right wing before Ndidi puts in a loose ball and West Brom counter.
“Ha, ha! Yes!! There it is! Shot on target! Boom! Told you they could do it! Though I have to admit I never thought it would result in a goal! Good things come to those who wait. It’s times like these I feel sorry for all the non-Baggie supporting football fans,” JR in Illinois there.
64 min: That was a brilliant free-kick from Chadli: whip, flight and bend. He struck it from five or 10 yards outside the box, in a central-ish position. He cleared the wall with ease, but there may be a few questions to ask of Schmeichel who might have felt he could have done more. The goal it may not bode well for the rest of the match: cue West Brom going even deeper.
61 min: It’s a West Brom corner, but it’s delayed by Fuchs and Rondon getting to know each other fairly intimately on the goalline. When the ball does come in, Leicester clear. But with half a chance to counterattack, Iheanacho overstretches and clatters Krychowiak. The striker is having a poor game - and now has a yellow card to remember it by.
59 min: Iborra wraps his legs around Rodriguez’s and knocks him flat on the ground. Frmo the free-kick, near the centre circle, West Brom meander around aimlessly, before Rodriguez crosses for Gibbs who can’t connect.
58 min: It’s gone a bit end-to-end, this - not in a quality way, but in a desperate, frenetic, hard-running but no real skill kind of way. Which is great! Myhill, though, is in trouble. He hoofs a clearance and limps off afterwards. It looks like he’s injured a hamstring,
56 min: Iheanacho tries to find Vardy in the box, when Mahrez was free on the right wing in space. There’s a pleasing amount of needle and edge to the match now, with a few tasty challenges going in. Morgan goes in on Rondon before Barry and Ndidi resume their bout. Needle is good.
“A while back you Guardian chaps and chapettes had the idea of anyone with less than a point a game should go down. Add less than a goal a game and I reckon we are in business. Nine of this current dross going down on that basis and two more hanging by the skin of their teeth,” emails John Little.
52 min: This looks worrying for West Brom. Myhill is down on the ground receiving attention from the physios. It looks like it was as a result of that collision with Vardy. He’s already their second choice keeper, and third choice keeper Palmer is as green as they come. For now, though, he’s OK to carry on.
50 min: Albrighton goes on a lovely jinking run into the box, then pulls the ball back to Mahrez on the penalty spot. He takes aim! And he fires it MILES over the bar while completely unmarked! GAH! No changes to either team in the second half, incidentally.
48 min: On seeing the Vardy and Myhill incident again, the keeper clearly realises he’s not going to get the ball so just runs into the striker. Yellow fair enough.
47 min: Mahrez rattles in the free-kick and the ball loops up into the air off a defender’s head. Maguire shoves Rondon out of the way, which takes some doing, and aims a header at goal - but Myhill tips it around the post.
46 min: Myhill comes rushing off his line as Vardy attempts to latch onto an underhit back pass. The pair collide nastily and both go down in a heap, just outside the area. It looked accidental to me, but Myhill gets a yellow card for it.
Oh god! There’s a second half. And it’s starting now. WHY? What we have done to deserve this? West Brom get the torture under way.
“Based on the first eight games I figure there’ll be lots of competition for the bottom three this season. Some years I wish four or five teams would go down. Who are your early favourites?” asks Mike MacKenzie in London, Canada. As long as one of this lot goes down, so we’re not subject to this again, it’ll be fine.
“I’m looking forward to the possibility of a shot on target by the Baggies in the second half,” writes a hopelessly optimistic JR in Ilinois. “I really think there’s a good chance they could pull it off. Possibly Rondon could be the man for the job. Or maybe Phillips if he comes on as a sub. Hey, a guy can dream, right?”
That half of footbal was awful. Absolutely awful. Forty-five minutes of sheer meh. That scarf below is the only thing that has happened. Corrie is on the other side. Watch that instead.
PEEP, PEEP! Mahrez passes to Albrighton, who whisks a low cross across the face of goal. But Vardy can’t get a touch. Briefly, things light up at the end of the first half as Leicester sniff a goal, but just as quickly they peter out as Vardy commits a foul. And that’s half time. Simpson with the best chance of the half.
42 min: Simpson crosses deep into the West Brom box and finds Iborra. He mishits a shot into the ground, but it bounces up for Vardy four yards out. He’s jumps! He heads it! He nods it high! And Myhill knocks it behind for a corner. Oh.
40 min: Dawson has a chance to cross, with men waiting in the box, but instead passes backwards to Krychowiak, who splatters the ball high over the bar.
If it comes off, it will be the most exciting thing that’s happened so far.