Adapting to injury woes, system changes and that 2-5 away win at Manchester City – why are Leicester City serious title contenders?

Premier League leaders Leicester City are off to a flyer this campaign. It’s their best-ever start to a Premier League season, sitting at the top of the table with 18 points from their opening eight encounters.

Despite slamming five past Manchester City, four away at Leeds United and keeping clean sheets against Arsenal and Wolves, Brendan Rodgers’ side are yet to be deemed as title challenging nor capable of achieving a top-four finish.

The catalyst for Leicester’s success in the opening eight games has been down to mastering the basics in their system.

Offensively, they’ve opted to use a three at the back system, with Rodgers deploying wing-backs James Justin and Timothy Castagne/Christian Fuchs high and wide in order to create gaps for the likes of Belgian midfielders Youri Tielemans and Dennis Praet to receive deeper to play.

The introduction of Wesley Fofana from Saint-Etienne has been sublime so far. The 19-year-old arrived at the King Power Stadium with a hefty £31.5m price tag on his head but seems to have taken this in his stride.

The youngster steps into midfield like a veteran, finds split passes in between the lines and is a threat in the air. Injury to Caglar Soyuncu as well as system change has allowed Fofana to flourish alongside Jonny Evans. He was immense against Wolverhampton Wanderers in the last league game, and stood out against Arsenal last month, collecting five interceptions, which was, on the day, a game high.

Leicester’s transition from a 4-1-4-1, to a 4-3-3, to a 3-4-3 means they’ve experienced a drastic drop-off in possession (55% to 50%) due to a lack of bodies inside the pitch.

The Foxes have elected to be patient out of possession, waiting to pounce on unforced errors – and it’s worked a treat. They’ve deployed a low block so they can catch out their opposition, force faults and win fouls, correlating to their eight penalties won this campaign, a league high.

A prime example being their magnificent 5-2 away victory against Manchester City. Leicester had 28.3% of the ball but did what they did best on the counter.

Jamie Vardy dispatched a brace purely from being clinical on the counter. After scoring a penalty to make it 1-1, Leicester scored against the run of play yet again with some delightful interplay between Tielemans, Castagne and Vardy.

Leicester City’s injury woes have been criminally undermined. The media have solely focused on Brendan Rodgers’ former club Liverpool and their injury crisis, yet the Foxes have suffered in a similar fashion.

Albeit, the Reds have suffered major injury blows to the spine of their squad –  Joe Gomez, Jordan Henderson and Andy Robertson being the most recent additions to the physio room – which was already packed with Trent Alexander Arnold, Fabinho, Virgil van Dijk, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Thiago.

However, there has been next to no attention to Leicester City’s injury issues. Portuguese international Ricardo Pereira has been side-lined for the last 8 months with an ACL injury, Wilfred Ndidi and Caglar Soyuncu are set to be out for a further two months and the likes of Daniel Amartey, Timothy Castagne, Wes Morgan and Jonny Evans have all been carrying minor niggles.

Working with minimal resources, it makes Leicester City’s flying start even more remarkable.

Leicester have adjusted to playing without maestro James Maddison, who has been closely monitored for the last few months after having is hip operated on at end of last season. The stint without Maddison has played a part on Leicester’s drop off of passes into the final third and shots outside of the box.

The Foxes’ creativity in the centre of the pitch has been lacklustre without their number ten, with them team relying on Youri Tielemans in their offensive transition more than ever before.

James Maddison had a spell of 90-minute matches before the international break in the Europa League as well as the English top-flight – a positive sign for Leicester City fans.

A knock-back for Rodgers’ team last campaign, however Maddison looks near back to his best, winning Premier League Goal of the Month in September for his outrageous effort against Manchester City.

The Premier League season has been full of shocks thus far; clubs are playing through a climate they’ve never faced before. On top of the pandemic, there’s the jam-packed fixture list over the festive period, which never fails to deliver shock results.

The Leicester City we’ve seen at the start of this season is reminiscent of their triumphant 2015/16 title winning campaign. Who is to say the Foxes can’t produce the same outcome five years on?