lnkstern

Following my pattern... 53 points has been enough to avoid relegation in all Championship seasons. We have 36/53, 68% of the required points. 93 points has been enough to gain automatic promotion to the Premier League. We have 36/93, 39% of the required points. I keep harping on the fact that we have a nice points cushion so we can survive the inevitable bad patch (probably during the Christmas/New Years season).

Gilt-edged chance for Sunderland put over the bar from eight yards away. Whew!

Naah. Picture-perfect cross to Vardy for a wondergoal.

TBH, I can't really claim that I know the exact rules covering this scenario. I just remember announcers blathering on about "foul started outside the box" in the past. No idea if they even knew the rules.

The foul started well outside the penalty area. No penalty.

Definitely want to see Enzo use all five subs in the second half. Bring on the fresh legs and have them on toast.

Great save by Mads on a obscured and deflected shot!

Both teams have turned up! Scrapping for every ball, moving forward with purpose. Nice to see! But like @Simonb said, I expect they will tire before us.

Justin did a really nice job of moving into open space and losing his original defender. The defender who ended up nearest to him appeared to not realize James was there until it was too late.

Nice to see Sunderland playing actual football, across the entire pitch! If nothing else, this match should be entertaining.

Yeah, "more than beatable" is a stretch. However, every team is beatable; just for some, the likelihood is quite low. But we all know how the script might go in the worst-case scenario. We get sixteen shots, seven on goal, but their keeper has a blinder. They take a corner, the clearance bounces right to a midfielder 20 yards out, he buries the ball in the upper right corner. 0-1, despite all the shots and 64% possession. This is NOT a prediction. But it is likely to happen at some point. I am still confident we will win today.

I never intended to bash Vestergaard -- he has played superbly in the new system. I was indirectly referencing what you explicitly stated above, "a structural fault of the way we play, but it's by design". It just makes me nervous seeing only the keeper in the entirety of Leicester's half of the field. I expect we won't push the central defenders anywhere near as far up for this match, given that Sunderland probably won't be parking the bus. Conversely, there will likely be lots of space for our counterattacks. Of course it is fairly obvious that I am not a expert football tactician. However, I do like winning, and I am happy that we keep doing it.

Up front, I will state that I am quite optimistic for a win. However... This is an interesting matchup. As @StriderHiryu said, Sunderland are quite capable of counterattacking successfully. Vesty might get caught out for lack of pace. I am confident that Enzo will correctly analyze the threat and put out the best XI to counter it. I also expect rotation of four to seven players to avoid fatigue. Man... Five years since we lost Vichai. Miss the Chairman. How the hell has it been five years?

As others said, Leicester seemed a bit disjointed after the international break. However, we played well enough to get the win. It was nice to not have to play against the double-parked bus. And you can see that Swansea have some talent and desire in their squad. Good win. Onward and upward!

Swansea are lively, and it appears they have enough talent to give Leicester a real game. Nice to have an opponent who is willing to actually play football with us. Like many have said, Jannik's severe lack of pace was and is his achille's heel.

Fack

Don't know much about Swansea this season. Haven't seen them in action yet. They are in a clump of four mid-table teams sat on 15 points. However, their last five form of one draw then four wins means we should pay attention to what they are doing different recently. This also means they were on two points (!) before the last five matches. In Enzo I trust.

I've increasingly noticed the ability of some teams and players to push their physical play right to the edge of the envelope while still not getting on the ref's naughty list. It is definitely a skill, one that I simultaneously admire and detest in opponents. Sometimes (like now in the Championship) players are trying to compensate for a comparative lack of skill. Sometimes (like in the EPL) it's just the way the team or player plays. I also agree that Leicester has needed more physical play (within reason) from many of our players for a while. One of the reasons I like Hamza is he is not afraid to put in a crunching tackle -- and nowadays he (mostly) has the sense to not go too far.

Stats for the previous 19 Championship seasons (from Wikipedia). - Safety from relegation in a typical season: 50 points. In an outlier season: 53 points. Leicester City were relegated in 2008 with 52 points. - Automatic promotion (top two) in a typical season: 90 points. In an outlier season: 93 points. Leicester City after a quarter (1/4, 25%) of the season (approximately). - 30 points -- 3/5 (60%) of the points necessary to guarantee safety. -- 1/3 (33%) of the points necessary for automatic promotion. We are well ahead of the required points rate for automatic promotion. To me, the important bit is that we have a nice points cushion. We all know some sort of rough patch will show up, whether because of injury, fatigue, or other circumstance. The bigger the cushion we can accumulate now, the less we have to fret over occasional dropped points. We know we won't finish the season with 120 points, but 90 points seems eminently attainable. I will be happy with simply getting promoted.

Thank you so very much @moore_94! Exactly what I was looking for.

Like I said earlier, I want to see the heat map for Leicester this match, but I don't really know where to look and how long to wait. Any suggestions?

If that center back had pace, he wouldn't be a CB. Like we say in American football (when a defensive back drops an interception), if that DB could catch, he wouldn't be a DB.

Welcome Connor Coady and Marc Albrighton!

Such brilliant combo passing that lead to the goal.

Overhitting a lot of the longer pass attempts.