Preston 0-3 Leicester: 3 Talking Points as the Foxes Secure Championship Title

The Foxes arrived at Deepdale on a wet and blustery night in Central Lancashire hoping to put the finishes touches to what was already an exceptionally good season. It had been suggested that Enzo Maresca would rotate his team for this game. Those who have paid attention to his selections knew this was unlikely but they turned out to be wrong. No less than four changes were made to the side that demolished Southampton last week with Jakub Stolarczyk, Conor Coady, Yunus Akgun and Kasey McAteer coming in for Mads Hermansen, James Justin, Stephy Mavididi and, most surprising of all, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall. Was this a mistake? We were soon to find out.

 A party atmosphere

When Leicester City last won promotion from the Championship ten years ago, they slipped to a 1-4 home defeat to Brighton in their next match. I did wonder if the well-publicised celebrating of the players since QPR’s demolition of Leeds on Friday night would have an adverse effect on their performance against Preston.

Not a bit of it. With the pressure released after many weeks of uncertainty, the Foxes played with considerable panache to overrun their mid-table opponents. The first half was relatively tight but once Jamie Vardy notched the opener the result was never really in doubt with Vardy again and McAteer adding further goals. Indeed, it could, and probably should, have been more with Vardy missing a one on one with the keeper and Abdul Fatawu, who was brilliant again, hitting the post. Preston didn’t really lay a glove on their title winning opponents.