Brendan Rodgers’ side burnished their elite credentials by beating Spurs, but home wins over teams such as Newcastle will be even more important if they want to stay thereBeating
Tottenham Hotspur last week was terrific but on Sunday Leicester face an even more important test of their top-four credentials. Too often in the last few seasons they have flunked the sort of examination that Newcastle are likely to set them at the King Power Stadium. That is partly why Brendan Rodgers was hired in February. One of the manager’s main duties is to improve the rate of success against visiting teams who defend deep and tight.
Under Claude Puel, Leicester were regularly blunted at home by sides they had been expected to cut open. It became frustrating and costly. Rodgers felt that anguish last season when, two months after his appointment, he suffered his first home defeat as Leicester manager – at the hands of Rafael Benítez’s Newcastle. They won there for the second season in a row by setting up in something akin to the tortoise formation that the Roman army favoured for difficult away assignments, before springing forward like altogether more fearsome beasts and sinking their fangs into the stunned hosts.