Key events
And looking ahead to the weekend’s big one with Barney Ronay:
Transfer news: Let’s see about this one.
Mary Waltz: “If Leicester think they can just sit back and keep this one-goal lead I think they are fooling themselves.”
That appears the plan. Let’s see if it works.
Half-time: Leicester 1-0 Birmingham
The game has reflected the stakes. Letting Abdul Fatawu go was the one mistake made and Birmingham paid for it. Marti Cifuentes’ plan is working, Chris Davies’s is struggling to create enough chances.
45+5 min: Mavididi crashes the ball behind for a corner, taken deep. Gray gets a chance to take another but it’s cleared. The half closes with a scramble and applause from home fans.
45+2 min: Leicester forwards starved of the ball, Brum’s forwards starved of chances. It’s made for an intriguing tactical battle only lifted by that Fatawu finish.
45 min: Choudhury is silly in smashing into Ethan Laird. He’s booked, too. Five minutes added on.
44 min: The same happens again, Choudhury smashing long, the ball back with Birmingham, and Leicester defending well.
42 min: Choudhury smashes in Koumas to make a vital tackle but Fatawu is ploughing a lone furrow. Leicester keep giving the ball to Leicester.
40 min: Birmingham knocking on the door but seem to lack the incision and creativity. Luke Thomas comes across to smash away. Leicester’s defending has been a trifle agricultural. But effective nonetheless.
38 min: Gray’s pass fizzes across the box but no takers. Chris Davies wants much more from his team.
37 min: Birmingham not getting many numbers forward. They are taking their time when attacking. Mind, Fatawu is isolated by his teammates dropping back.
35 min: Young Koumas has left something on Leicester’s Okoli, who goes down injured while making a clearance. Foul given, no booking. The exuberance of youth.
34 min: For a club of such uncertainty, yo-yoing, the Leicester fans are behind their team.
33 min: Skipp has to do some sweeping up in midfield, where Birmingham have been in control.
31 min: Gray is being double, nay, treble marked by a mindful Leicester. Birmingham in the ascendancy and looking for a way through. The wall of blue shirts from Leicester making it tough for them. Iwata tries to shoot but lobs wide.
29 min: Blues – in white – are pushing on. Gray is still at the fulcrum despite being in obvious pain. Vestergaard makes a fine tackle as Kyogo attempts to beat him for skill.
27 min: Allsop, the Blues keeper, clashes with Page, who trod on his foot by accident. Allsop is not amused and waves away the apology.
25 min: Gray will have to come off soon but he’s full of skill, even with one arm hanging limply. Koumas and Kyogo still yet to see much of the ball. Leicester have looked solid. Wout Faes is on his way out. Is that coincidence?
23 min: Fatawu attempts to send Mavididi away but he slips on a greasy old surface. Gray’s day looks done, and he goes off to come back on again. Chris Davies is not impressed. Not with Gray but his whole team who have been … sloppy.
21 min: Kyogo, possibly glad to be free of Celtic, is struggling to get on the wavelength of his colleagues. Stansfield’s direct running is rather missed by Blues.
19 min: Demarai Gray is still carrying that injury but as we saw with the aforementioned Odegaard and Tonali, they are not easy to just run off.
18 min: Louis Page is galloping through but the ball comes off his heel, just as the Leicester teen looked likely to score. Some gaps in that Blues defence.
17 min: Seen in the stand, El Khannouss, who was a rare ray of light in Leicester’s dreadful last season. Palace bound? It seems so.
16 min: Gray is back and running, and Gray still in some pain forces a corner he will take. Leicester get it clear at the back post.
14 min: Birmingham at last doing some attacking. Leicester clear as Koumas tries to get involved.
12 min: Gray is sat up but is holding his shoulder. That seems a common injury this season – Odegaard and Tonali this week, for example. But Gray is back on, in some pain.
11 min: First run for Demarai Gray, and he’s brought down. That looked nasty in the way he fell. Chris Davies is furious. It looks nasty. The TV pictures aren’t showing it. Birmingham have time to regroup but it looks likely to be without Gray.
9 min: As good a goal as that was from Abdul Fatawu, Birmingham’s defending was so so lax.
Goal! Leicester 1-0 Birmingham (Fatawu, 8)
What a goal from a player too good for this level, and denied a chance in the big league by the Premier League. Fatawu cut in, Laird left standing and wallop. What a finish.
7 min: Argy-bargy delays the kick. Luke Thomas’ kick forces a hurried clearance but a Brum attack, too. The danger is snuffed out, quickly.
6 min: Marti Cifuentes did a fine job at QPR, on a shoestring. He looks tense. Fatawu, scorer at The Valley, is fouled and a free-kick chance is readied.
5 min: It’s loud in the stands as fans enjoy the last vestiges of a long, hot summer. Leicester are seeing much of the ball. Birmingham seem happy to let them have it.
3 min: A set piece, a throw, is launched by Hamza, at right-back. Birmingham are back and in good shape. Chris Davies has a reputation for organisation.
2 min: Peter Oh is straight in. “Speaking of Chris Martin, can you report on whether or not there’s a Coldplay-style Kiss Cam at the King Power today?” Watch out, you CEOs and heads of HR. The football? Bitty so far, very bitty.
We are go at the King Power
1 min: Off we go. Some empty seats? And a stray cone left on the field delayed the kick-off. A guilty coach had to run on and remove it. It’s high press and high energy already.
Some loud Kasbabian – thankfully not their awful Sky Premier League anthem – is ringing out. Here we go in the greatest league in the whole bloody world. The teams come out to applause for the last game of August.
Apologies for the Chris Davies/Martin mix-up. Guess I’m just too much of a Coldplay fan. And lover of the current Bristol Rovers striker. Sad thing is, I have actually spoken to Chris Davies. Nurse…
Demarai Gray, who began his career at Birmingham, before joining Leicester in the glory season of 2015-16, is back at Blues, and has experience and talent to add to his boyhood club.
Will Birmingham miss Jay Stansfield, who is missing through injury? He got a foot injury at Port Vale in the EFL. He’ll be out for “weeks”, according to Chris Martin Davies.
Our resident Grimsby chair – whatever happened to the Mariners this week, anyone know? – Jason Stockwood wrote up these recent thoughts on the Birmingham City ownership.
Good win for Leicester last week at Charlton.
For Birmingham, Lewis Koumas, son of Jason, on loan from Liverpool, an EFL Cup winner in 2024, makes a debut. No Bilal El Khannouss for Leicester again amid transfer talk despite being declared “available”. Jeremy Monga, 16, drops to the bench for Stephy Mavidi but Louis Page, 17, make his first home start.
Plenty of blooming youth around at the club of Jimmy Bloomfield, their legendary manager of the 1970s.
The teams
Leicester: Stolarczyk, Choudhury, Okoli, Vestergaard, Luke Thomas, Soumare, Skipp, Fatawu, Page, Mavididi, Ayew. Subs: Begovic, Faes, Nelson, Winks, Ricardo Pereira, Silko Thomas, Aluko, Monga, Daka.
Birmingham: Allsop, Samuel, Neumann, Klarer, Laird, Willumsson, Paik, Iwata, Gray, Koumas, Furuhashi. Subs: Beadle, Gardner-Hickman, Cashin, Cochrane, Leonard, Doyle, Anderson, Ducksch, Dykes.
Referee: Josh Smith (Lincolnshire)
Preamble
A midlands derby, east v west, and with there being no time like the present, and Stoke (!) running away with the Championship, this is a battle for the playoff. OK, it’s after four games but both teams are in a hurry to the Premier League. Leicester, well, finances dictate they need to get back up. Birmingham, well, with Toms Wagner and Brady involved, are shooting for the moon, and rebuilding the Second City with it. Or something. There’s high stakes at play here, with Chris Martin Davies back at Leicester where he once worked under Brendan Rodgers. Martí Cifuentes is the latest manager asked to turn the Leicester ship around. Signs so far for both clubs have been promising.
Kickoff at 8pm. Join me.
