• The player who still arguably exerts the greatest influence on Manchester City’s overall strategy produced this attritional game’s match-winning moment .
• When Jack Grealish was hauled down by Nampalys Mendy four minutes after half-time, the peerless Belgian stepped up to curve a magnificent 25-yard free-kick with his right foot that was tantalisingly out of the reach of the excellent Danny Ward.
Image: FILE
Manchester City have been The Erling Haaland Show this season but in his absence, one of the most enduringly world-class members of the club’s all-star cast demonstrated exactly why he remains irreplaceable.
Haaland was forced to sit out the visit to Leicester City after suffering a combination of illness and injury that saw him substituted at the interval against former club Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League in midweek.
They were bound to miss the 22-year-old with a remarkable 17 goals in 11 Premier League games and his absence looked like it may be a key factor as Leicester erected a blue wall of defensive defiance from the kick-off, then invited Manchester City to break it down.
It is at times like this that the big players make a big difference - step forward Kevin de Bruyne.
The player who still arguably exerts the greatest influence on Manchester City’s overall strategy produced this attritional game’s match-winning moment and put Pep Guardiola’s reigning Premier League champions back on top of the table with a narrow 1-0 victory.
When Jack Grealish was hauled down by Nampalys Mendy four minutes after half-time, the peerless Belgian stepped up to curve a magnificent 25-yard free-kick with his right foot that was tantalizingly out of the reach of the excellent Danny Ward, glancing off the frame of the goal before nestling in the back of the net.
De Bruyne, as he has been so often, was the crucial factor. No Haaland? No problem when you have players of that quality.
Guardiola, who sets standards so high, said: “He was not playing well in the last few games but today he was amazing. He knows it. There was no space today. We had to be patient.”
While Haaland, perfectly justifiably, has claimed the banner headlines with his exploits, De Bruyne is one of the big brains of this Manchester City operation. Even when they were being squeezed and frustrated by a well-organized Leicester in the first half, De Bruyne was probing, looking for that lethal pass inside and behind a well-drilled Foxes defence.
In the end, De Bruyne decided it with the sort of individual magic that has become his trademark just to remind everyone, should such a reminder even be required given they have won four of the last five Premier League titles, that Manchester City possess brilliance that extends far beyond the Norwegian.
Haaland’s stellar record has been helped by De Bruyne pulling the strings, creating five goals for the striker in all competitions this season. In 16 games this season De Bruyne has 11 assists as well as three goals of his own.
This is a small illustration of his overall influence on Manchester City, an influence that stretches back to his arrival from Wolfsburg in August 2015 for what was then a club record £55m - a fee that now represents a bargain given subsequent inflation in the transfer market.
Leicester manager Brendan Rodgers described De Bruyne as “a brilliant player, a fantastic player” and this was his 25th Premier League goal from outside the box, the ninth-highest tally of any player in top-tier history and the most of any currently active player.
De Bruyne gave a consummate demonstration here, not just with his winning goal but with his deceptive pace and strength as well as his ability to control the tempo and dictate terms.
It needed patience from the visitors in the face of Leicester City’s risk-averse strategy, which was not cast aside until it was too late, although Rodgers insisted it had to be factored in that they were up against a team of such quality.
There had to be a measure of frustration, though, that having been released from the shackles after De Bruyne’s goal, Leicester did threaten as Youri Tielemans saw a superb volley from a corner touched against the bar by Ederson.
They also induced moments of panic in the visitors’ defence, especially in the closing seconds when John Stones headed an attempted clearance against Ruben Dias, the rebound flying just wide of his own goal.
In the end, however, it was as it has been so often for Guardiola’s side - a world-class player producing an unstoppable world-class moment.
And in the absence of Haaland, De Bruyne remains that player.