Iheanacho Leicester City dent Man City champions’ title hopes as Ndidi shines on Boxing day

Manchester City suffered their second successive defeat as Ricardo Pereira’s spectacular late strike gave  Leicester a win and dropped Pep Guardiola’s side down to third.

It has been a miserable festive period so far for Guardiola’s side, who have now twice surprisingly been beaten after scoring the game’s opening goal. As festive periods go, this has been a miserable one for City who have now slipped seven points behind leaders Liverpool whose closest challengers are now Tottenham – six points back of the leaders.

Ricardo Pereira’s superb 81st-minute strike secured a 2-1 win for Leicester City as Manchester City fell further behind in the title race. The champions’ misery was compounded by a straight red card for Fabian Delph in the dying moments, with referee Mike Dean deeming his challenge on Pereira as dangerous.

So, a largely miserable Christmas for City who are clearly out of sorts at present and need to get back to winning ways as soon as possible.  Leicester are at home to Cardiff City on Saturday, 29 December and they play at Everton on Tuesday, 1 January.

A run of only one win in eight matches in all competitions had led to speculation concerning the future of Foxes manager Claude Puel. However, his side have responded by winning 1-0 at Chelsea on Saturday and now became only the third side to beat Manchester City in the league this season.

Despite conceding so early on, Leicester’s players quickly got themselves back into it and ended the first half strongly with Manchester City goalkeeper Ederson saving efforts from Vardy, James Maddison and Hamza Choudhury.

For Manchester City, they will be trying to get back to winning ways at Southampton on 30 December, before a home game against league leaders Liverpool on 3 January.

Credit: dailyadvent.com