Iheanacho threatens but De Bruyne's cracker takes Manchester City top of the league

Defending champions Manchester City have momentarily returned to the top of the English Premier League table after picking up their 9th win of the season.

Without marksman Erling Haaland, Pep Guardiola's side relied on Kevin De Bruyne's goal to give them a 1-0 victory over Leicester City at the King Power Stadium in Saturday's early kick-off.

Nigeria's Kelechi Iheanacho was a second-half substitute for Leicester City with the Super Eagles star's introduction coinciding with Leicester City's best spell of the game.

Coming off the back of two consecutive two league victories, Leicester City were confident they could nick a point or three against a Manchester City side lacking the unerring finish of Haaland.

Leicester City manager Brendan Rodgers started with Jamie Vardy, James Maddison, and Harvey Barnes leading the attack while Nigeria's pair of Kelechi Iheanacho and Wilfred Ndidi were named on the bench.

Manchester City dominated the game as expected but Haaland's replacement, Julian Alvarez could not trouble a rejuvenated Leicester City defence that had not conceded a goal in six hours of football before this game.

With Vardy not getting his first touch of the game till the 18th minute either, it was one-way slow-burn traffic of Manchester City possession without any goals for the whole of the first half.

However, it took just four (4) minutes after the break for De Bruyne to fire in a crackling freekick to finally end Leicester City's run of three consecutive clean sheets in the league. 

Rodgers brought on the African pair of Patson Daka and Iheanacho in the 71st minute with both players' introduction seeing Leicester City dominate for the final quarter of an hour.

Iheanacho had two opportunities to score against his former club but the Super Eagles star could not find the equaliser for his side despite an impressive cameo appearance.

Kelechi Iheanacho came on as a second-half substitute against Manchester City same as his last three league appearances, this time replacing Vardy at the King Power Stadium.

The Nigerian striker got into the thick of the action immediately, firing two (2) shots during his time on the pitch, doing better than Vardy who had no shots at all in 71 minutes.

Iheanacho also played one (1) key pass and created one (1) big chance against Manchester City as the hosts went in search of an equaliser in the closing stages of the match.

The Super Eagles forward contested two (2) duels and attempted one (1) dribble, making a good account of himself as Leicester City limited Manchester City to just the one De Bruyne goal. 

Both sides will return to league action on Sunday, November 5 as Leicester City take on Everton while Manchester City face Fulham.