Manchester City v Leicester City: Premier League – live

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28 min: I can’t think of a more one sided half hour of football all season. Leicester have barely had a kick of the ball. They’ve been blown away. And not just when City have had the ball. They’re just as committed and ruthless without it.

GOAL! Manchester City 3-0 Leicester (Haaland, 25)

Just as I said, it’s another for who know who. City nip it from Leicester with De Bruyne picking Ndidi’s pocket. He then drives forwards and slips in a perfectly timed ball for Hallanad who doesn’t have to break stride before lifting it into the net over a scrambling Iversen. That’s 47 goals for the season for Haaland and 100 City assists for the best midfielder in the world.

24 min: City ping it about with at such a rate it’s hard to even keep track sitting on my couch. Left to right, forwards and then back. A speculative looping cross into the box tries to find Haaland but it doesn’t meet him. Still, they’re stretching Leicester with such ease that a third is surely coming.

22 min: It’s been said before, but I really hate the gigantic advertising boards at the Etihad. We know that money makes the ball go round, but this just feels over the top.

21 min: Leicester have a shot at goal. It’s blocked, but that was encouraging. A break down the left was sent back into a dangerous area where Vardy takes a touch and lays it off for Dewsbury-Hall. It was a pretty tame effort but a deflection might have taken it past a diving Ederson.

19 mins: Mahrez is chopped down by Tielemans snuffing out that move. De Bruyne plays another poor pass, his second in a row!

18 min: It’s a rare error from the Belgian as his delivery is too shallow. Leicester get across the halfway line but two City players swarm Vardy and steal it from him. Back they go.

17 min: Silva’s deep cross from the left is met by Walker who volleys first time back in the mixer. Nothing doing. Incredible that City are still finding so much width despite the back five from Leicester. They now have a free kick on the right with De Bruyne over it.

“Yes, well, aye - fair enough,” says Charles Antaki (which is a brilliant way to start an email, by the way).

“Man City again on their way to thrashing some poor set of beggars in the manner of the Harlem Globetrotters plus some stooges. Arsenal fans were more or less expecting this, though trying not to think about it very much. Pressure on the West Ham game now up to stratospheric levels (actually, that doesn’t really work, if I remember my school level physics. Down to Mariana trench levels?).”

Pressure can go up as well as down, I’d say.

PENALTY! Manchester City 2-0 Leicester City (Haaland, 13)

Goal number 46 for the towering Norwegian. He didn’t strike it cleanly but it’s off the bottom of the post and just out of Iversen’s reach and that, after less than 15 minutes, is probably that as far as the contest is concerned.

Erling Haaland tucks away the spot kick. Photograph: Nick Potts/PA

Penalty for City! No doubt about it. Grealish’s cross from the byline just inside the area on the left was diverted out by Ndidi who had his hand thrust out in an awkward position. Clear as day. Now Haaland has the ball and is standing with it over the spot.

Darren England has been called to the monitor.

10 min: Penalty incoming, Ndidi has clearly made contact with his hand.

10 min: Haaland takes a swipe from the corner. Then Stones. They’re all trying to a kick a ball that is seemingly running away from them. More City pressure as Iversen doesn’t clear. Really scrappy.

9 min: Ooh, it’s a corner but perhaps should have been a free kick, or even a penalty, after Faes bashed into the back of Grealish. Looked pretty clear to me, but even VAR says no.

7 min: That makes an already impossible mission even more so for the Foxes. Barring something spectacular this now becomes a quantity question. City are on the attack again with Stones and Dias once again occupying positions deep in Leicester’s half.

GOAL! Manchester City 1-0 Leicester City (Stones, 5)

BANG! Even their centre backs score crackers. It’s from a corner but not with his head. The ball is cleared but is sent back in the mix. It bobbles and bounces and Stones lashes it on the volley with his left foot and finds the net just inside the post. What a hit.

John Stones fires in a scorcher to open the scoring. Photograph: Stu Forster/Getty Images

4 min: Dias and Stones are playing with the ball about 10m inside Leicester’s half. Grealish on the overlap down the left dinks a ball to the back post. It falls for Marhez who shoots but it’s blocked for a corner.

3 min: Marhrez pulls down a high ball inside the area with the most delicious touch. His cross is blocked but City build again down the left with Grealish involved. Looks like this will be 90 minutes of attack versus defence. Not that we were expecting much else.

2 min: It’s a solid wall of five at the back for Leicester. They’ll want to break when they get it and Maddison does, but trips over his own feet and City have it back.

1 min: City, in their traditional sky blue, kick off all the way to Ederson. Leicester in black already in their two compact blocks.

City with a 4-3-3. Leicester going with a 5-3-2.

Just been told this is Daniel Iversen’s fifth league game but it’s with his third Premier League manager. That is some stat.

Five minutes to go. A City win take them within three of Arsenal. If Leicester pull off a stunning result they’ll move out of the relegation zone.

“Why Leicester have signed Dean Smith? Surely if they wanted to avoid drop, they should’ve hired that goal linesman that saved Villa that year.”

That’s from Yash Gupta. My guess is they tried him first but he turned it down.

So, can Leicester actually pull this off? I mean, really, in this real world, survive the drop? It’ll take something special. The club is a basket case and they can’t buy a win. Good luck Dean Smith. I’m certainly rooting for them.

In this piece, Ben Fisher chats to the man tasked with performing a miracle:

“One thing is clear,” says Jeff Sax. “With with Pep in charge, city have a chance to win the PL, but not the Champions League.”

I dunno, Jeff. Call it a hunch that thousands of other people have, but I think they’re going to do it in Istanbul this year.

I wonder what Manchester City’s cotton wool budget is? £10 million? £20 million? Whatever it is, they’ll need to double it to wrap up that striking Viking between games.

According to the boss, the sentient goal machine, Erling Haaland, is being taken care of “24 hours” a day, which makes total sense, to be fair.

“Hi Daniel”

Hi Jan Wetzel. Thanks for being my first correspondent today. What’s on your mind?

“Can I just question the logic of the recurring refrain these days of “City know that their fate is in their hands. Win all their remaining games....”? Because you could say the same about Arsenal. In fact, they only need to not loose against City, right? Which is a *slightly* easier proposition. Asking for a friend. Best, Jan.”

Thanks Jan. It’s a good question and though I’m about to give an answer, please know it’s not a hill I’ll die on.

I think both clubs have a hand on the trophy as they’re both in control of their destinies. If I was calling Arenal’s game tomorrow I might have spoken in these terms then.

Now does that mean that neither team has a hand on the trophy? It’s a philosophical conundrum that was explore in the excellent ‘Football Cliches’ podcast hosted by Adam Hurrey.

If you’re asking me, I think it’s still 50-50 despite the points difference at present. I’m not a City fan but I can honestly see them winning every game from here which means they’ll obviously drop points today.

Dean Smith names his first team

The mission is simple for new boss Dean Smith: Beat the world’s best team on their own patch and save their Premier League status. Simple, eh?

Leicester City: Iversen, Castagne, Soyuncu, Souttar, Faes, Kristiansen, Drewsbury-Hall, Tielemans (c), Ndidi, Maddison, Vardy.

Substitutes: Ward, Amartey, Thomas, Mendy, Praet, Marcal-Madivadua, Tete, Iheanacho, Daka.

Kyle Walker starts for the first time in over a month.

The man once considered England’s premier right back makes a return. So too does Aymeric Laporte as Manchester City unleash a full strength team that sends shivers down the spine. Just look at that line-up!

Manchester City: Ederson, Walker, Stones, Dias, Laporte, Rodrigo, De Bruyne (c), Bernardo, Mahrez, Grealish, Haaland.

Substitutes: Ortega Moreno, Phillips, Ake, Gundogan, Alvarez, Gomez, Akanji, Palmer, Lewis.

Before we get into the fun stuff, it’s worth having a quick chat about Hillsborough. Don’t worry, I won’t add anything to the discourse. There’s nothing I could say that would be better than what Sachin Nakrani said.

I also want to share this beautiful cartoon from last yearby the genius that is David Squires. So subtle, so powerful, just brilliant:

Preamble

Hello, hello and welcome to this tale of two contrasting Cities. It’s squeaky bum time now for the title chasers in Manchester and the survival hopefuls from Leicester. Anything but a victory won’t do either any good this afternoon.

City* know that their fate is in their hands. Win all their remaining games and they’ll pip Arsenal by the end of the season.

Leicester*, mired in 19th and on a winless run of nine games stretching back to 11 February, are in deep, deep trouble. It would be shocking to see the former champions go down but down they’ll go unless they can sort themselves out.

This fixture was a belter last season with the home side winning a 6-3 slugfest. Perhaps that will embolden the Foxes who might regard this as a free swing. After all, only their most diehard fans will expect much against a side that has made mincemeat of their opponents of late, including the German giants Bayern Munich who were were swatted aside 3-0 in midweek.

But you never know. Relegation scraps and late season title chargers can do strange things to the body and mind. One gaffe, one slip, one loose pass and an entire campaign’s work can come a cropper.

This’ll be a goodie. I can feel it.

If you’re on the same page, or you want me to be on your page, or you’ve got a line from a page you want to share with the group, please do get in touch. My name is Dan and I’m delighted to be at the wheel for this one.

Kick off at 5:30 BST. Teams and updates to follow.

*A quick caveat. For the sake of clarity, I’ll be referring to Manchester City as ‘City’ and will call Leicester City ‘Leicester’. My apologies to any Leicester City fans. Please don’t see this as a demotion. I just want to avoid getting my wires crossed.