The Foxes were relegated from the Premier League after a very dismal season, but they appear to be in a solid position to bounce back on their first attempt.
Enzo Maresca’s team now leads the standings with 11 points, with Leeds United in third place.
Leicester, on the other hand, experienced only their second defeat of the season, losing 1-0 to Leeds at the King Power Stadium on Friday night, with Georginio Rutter’s second-half strike securing all three points for the Whites.
After his team’s nine-game winning streak came to an end, Maresca stated that losing games is “normal” during the season.
“Overall, I’m happy with the performance because they competed and we created some chances,” Maresca said in an interview with the BBC.
“It’s football; I know we shouldn’t have lost, but nevertheless. We usually state that we have no influence over the outcome, but we did anticipate that they would employ their weaponry, such as counterattacks, as that was how we saw the game going.
“We can’t expect to win, win, win, win; it’s certain that we will lose and draw games, but we will definitely win because the race consists of 46 games.
“But in the end, the most important thing is the way they behave, and that tonight has been good—we created chances, tried to play our football, and so for me overall, it was a good performance.”
When the Foxes travel to Riverside Stadium on Saturday to play Middlesbrough, they’ll be hoping to get back to winning ways.
Is Leicester City’s season going to be defined by the Middlesbrough match?
Leicester’s encounter with a rejuvenated Boro team, who have won six of their last eight league games, won’t be simple.
Although Boro lost all seven of their first games of the season, Michael Carrick’s team has shown great improvement in recent weeks to close the gap on the play-off spots to just four points.
Even though Boro lost their leading scorer, Chuba Akpom, this summer, they still have Isaiah Jones, Matt Crooks, Sam Greenwood, and Josh Coburn as attacking threats.
It might be a challenging afternoon for the Foxes given that the Riverside Stadium has turned into a fortress once more in recent weeks and that Boro defeated Southampton, another team favored to win promotion, on their home field in September.
But, as they demonstrated in the exciting 3-3 draw at Plymouth Argyle on Saturday, Boro are poor defensively, and Leicester can easily take advantage of those flaws given the quality at their disposal.
Although the Foxes currently lead the third-place Whites by a considerable margin, a second straight loss this weekend would put pressure on them. One defeat is not a catastrophe, especially for a team as good as Leeds.
Many have wondered if Leicester may surpass Reading’s all-time high of 106 points this season, but if Maresca’s team loses on Saturday as well, the storyline might start to shift and they might not finish in first place, depending on what happens to Ipswich Town the following week.
The Foxes had nine straight wins after their September loss to Hull City, so it wouldn’t be shocking if they went on another winning streak. However, if they were to lose on Teesside, King Power Stadium might begin to sound alarms.
