As on Thursday night, Leicester will have to cope without James Maddison. Can he still give the post-match interview though?

"We looked at Chelsea and we knew they switch off sometimes from set pieces."
"@Carra23 said he needs to get his numbers up if he wants to be a top player."

James Maddison speaks to Sky Sports about Leicester's win that sends them top of the Premier League. pic.twitter.com/yYjV31xHX5

We’ve just seen tape of Brandan telling Robbie Savage that at 48, he’s coming into his prime as a coach – a happy chance! – and notes that development is generally associated with young players, but he’s just as focused on his older players. I really enjoy hearing him talk football and find his refusal to play down his own role in things refreshing, but he could really use a trophy. He says a successful season would be European football –at this point, I’m not so sure about that, given they’ve been in the top four for the duration and botched it a year ago – and is also desperate to win the cup.

BT reckon Leicester will play Iheanacho behind Vardy, which sounds slightly odd; like Vardy, he’s a finisher not a prompter, but you can’t legislate for Brendan’s transformative genius.

Email! “I thought I knew what ‘enervating’ meant, but I looked it up anyway,” confesses Charles Antaki. “Causing [a person] to feel drained of energy, fatigued”. Fair enough metaphorically about Leicester’s home loss to Slavia Prague, but surely a better, literal, description not only of Arsenal’s flight to Athens but of the numbing stodge that they tend to deliver on the field of play?”

One man’s enervation is another man’s innovation, as the old saying goes.

It looks a lot like Mikel Arteta has picked a team to nick something, if possible. Saka is his best player and Aubameyang his most likely scorer, but neither start; though Willian was better when he came on against Benfica, he’s been largely dreadful this season; and Pepe is Pepe.

Arsenal, meanwhile, make six changes. At the back, Cedric Soares and Pablo Mari replace Hecto Bellerin and Gabriel; in midfield, Elneny is in for Dani Ceballos; and in attack, Saka, Martin Odegaard and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang sit at the side, with Willian, Nicolas Pepe and Alexandre Lacazette replacing them.

I’m fairly surprised to see Leicester line up in 4-4-2, but it makes a lot of sense. Arsenal are strong out wide, so sticking two men on each flank will help combat that, and impetuous at the back, so two strikers might exacerbate that. Having just two in the middle of midfield could allow Arsenal to dominate in that area, but with two limited sitters in Mohamen Elneny and Granit Xhaka, that seems unlikely.

Brendan Rodgers makes four changes following that midweek disappointment: Timothy Casatagne replaces Daniel Amartey at right-back; Ricardo Pererira is in at right-midfield for Cengiz Under; on the left, Harvey Barnes resumes with Marc Albrighton takes a rest; and up front, Kelechi Iheanacho comes in with Hamza Choudhury dropping out of midfield.

Leicester City (a sophisticate’s 4-4-2): Schmeichel; Castagne, Soyuncu, Evans, Thomas; Pereira, Ndidi, Tielemans, Barnes; Iheanacho, Vardy. Subs: Ward, Albrighton, Amartey, Under, Choudhury, Mendy, Fuchs, Daley-Campbell, Tavares.

Arsenal (a circumspect 4-2-3-1): Leno; Soares, Mari, Luiz, Tierney; Elneny, Xhaka; Willian, Smith Rowe, Pepe; Lacazette. Subs: Ryan, Bellerin, Saka, Ceballos, Odegaard, Aubameyang, Holding, Partey, Martinelli.

There’s loads of things to love about this game but foremost among them is the tussle between two classic footballing platitudes: “This game’s all about confidence and momentum, Clive,” versus “It takes half an hour just to run the travel out of your legs, Brian.” It’s the unstoppable cliche meets the immovable truism.

Leicester come into this match on the back of a significant disappointment. They’ll have fancied themselves for a proper hack at this season’s Europa League – rightly so – and after drawing 0-0 away to Slavia Prague looked in good shape to make that happen. But they then contrived a 0-2 home defeat that will have felt extremely enervating, reminding them of the mess they made of last season’s run-in; as such, they come into this match under pressure.

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