'Leicester Have A Good Record vs. Man City'

- Manchester City host Leicester City at Etihad Stadium on Monday (8pm BST kick-off)
- The champions need to win to replace Liverpool at the Premier League summit
- Stuart Brennan, from the Manchester Evening News, says Man City can handle the pressure
- Live coverage of the clash is available for free on LCFC Radio from 6pm BST on Monday

Since Pep Guardiola’s appointment in Manchester back in 2016, the Foxes have twice defeated Manchester City and been beaten only on penalties on two other occasions.

With the champions now needing to continue their incredible 12-match Premier League unbeaten run to remain ahead of Liverpool with just two matches to play, the pressure is on.

However, Brennan, the MEN’s Chief Manchester City Writer, says that if any team can handle that pressure on Monday night, it is Guardiola’s side of record-breakers.

“Leicester have a good record against Manchester City,” Brennan told LCFC Radio’s Matchday Live show, which follows the Pre-Match Pint at 7pm BST on Monday evening.

“That’s filling a lot of the fans with trepidation. Everyone remembers the 4-2 defeat at Leicester in 2016 and it left a big scar on Pep.

“It changed his approach in some ways and he changed his mind on what he needed to do [in England] so that alone is a feather in Leicester’s cap.

“The pressure is on, but this set of players do deal with pressure really well. The fans don’t because they’ve been subjected to whims of the gods of football for so many years.

“They always feel that something is always going to go wrong, but Pep and this set of players are a different breed to anything Manchester City have had in the past.

“They’ve had some good teams in the last 10 years, but this lot are so resilient that you would expect them to rise to it.

“I don’t think they would have been watching Liverpool and fearing the worst. They would just be excited at the challenge, but Leicester are going well so it could be a cracking game.”

Manchester City’s dramatic exit from the UEFA Champions League at the last-eight stage, meanwhile, has afforded them with more time to prepare for this fixture.

While Liverpool were in Barcelona in midweek – and will host the La Liga champions on Tuesday – Manchester City have had over a week to prepare for the visit of the Foxes.

“They’ve had eight days to prepare for this match, which is a bit of a rarity for Manchester City,” Brennan added. “They used to play midweek-weekend every week.

“But all of a sudden, they’ve had a little bit of a break and time to think about the game and time to prepare properly for it.

“They’ve had a rest as well and that could be important. Guardiola is an absolute master at keeping players at it – we saw that at the end of last season.

“They won the league with five games to go and they kept going until the very end so they could hit the 100-point mark.

“He gives them a clarity in terms of what they have to do to win the game. Players have said that they always feel like they walk onto a pitch fully equipped to win that game.

“They will go out feeling that way on Monday.”

Don't forget, you can listen to Monday's fascinating clash from 6pm BST on Monday evening for free on LCFC Radio.