Leicester City and Burnley Ruling the Championship Roost

Article by e-Leicester City Correspondent Jonathan Smith

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At the start of the season, very few people would have predicted that Leicester City and Burnley would be at the top of the Championship with just over a month remaining of the current campaign. The Clarets have been the real surprise package. Having sold Charlie Austin in the summer to QPR, many would have envisaged a tough season for the Turf Moor outfit but the goalscoring exploits of Danny Ings and Sam Vokes have spearheaded their promotion challenge.

Unfortunately for Burnley, injury to Ings ruled him out of Saturday’s top of the table clash with Leicester and Vokes had to be substituted early on due to a knee problem. It would be harsh to describe Burnley as just a ‘two men team’ but they struggled to cause too many problems without their deadly duo. A lack of striking cover meant a change of formation was required and Ashley Barnes was left with the challenge of leading the line. Barnes had scored twice for Brighton as they beat City 3-1 earlier this season; the last time the Foxes tasted defeat in the league. In truth, Barnes never looked like scoring on this occasion. He was up against Wes Morgan and Marcin Wasilewski who, minus a couple of slips and missed headers, were solid throughout.

Leicester also lost one half of their own deadly duo as Jamie Vardy limped off during the first half. His replacement, Chris Wood, went on to play a major part in the first goal and finished the game of with a superb second half strike. The New Zealand international has had a tough season with injury and has had to wait for an opportunity but Saturday was a really good audition for a regular starting role. Despite City having a fairly small squad this season, the quality and strength in depth shone through on Saturday. Kevin Phillips didn’t even make the bench and I’m sure Burnley would have loved to have someone of his calibre waiting in the wings when Vokes left the field of play. To be fair, this is probably where Leicester’s spending power has helped. I’m sure Burnley are working on a fairly small budget and probably wouldn’t be able to fund the wages of someone like Phillips unless he was going to be a regular starter and, at his age, that’s not possible. Of course, City have had to tighten the purse strings due to Financial Fair Play sanctions being introduced but this didn’t stop them from signing Riyad Mahrez in January when it became evident that we needed cover on the wing.

The squad is very well balanced these days with four central midfielders competing for two starting positions, three wide players challenging for two slots and about five strikers all trying to do their bit for the team when called upon. It means City could almost field two completely different teams and both would be competitive at Championship level. Injuries have been rare which has allowed City to use such a small squad too.

The 2-0 win at Turf Moor extended City’s lead at the top to six points, with a game in hand over their fellow automatic promotion candidates. With the unbeaten run now stretched to 19 games it seems like a case of when, not if, Leicester will book their place in the Premier League.

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