Leicester vs Manchester City match report: Frank Lampard delivers once again to hit 175 not out

Picture the scene. Manchester City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak enters his boardroom, which is empty apart from an ornate mirror. “I wish to extend Frank Lampard’s loan until the end of the season” he says, addressing his reflection. “Certainly,” comes the reply. Negotiations conclude in a New York minute.

The prospect of Lampard entering lucrative semi-retirement in Major League Soccer in the New Year, distant until yesterday, vanished entirely at the King Power Stadium. He played a little less than an hour, but that was sufficient to re-iterate his value to his adopted club, and the threat he represents to Chelsea, the institution which mourns him as a lost son.

City own him, despite the niceties of their arrangement with their New York franchise, and the implausible insistence of Manuel Pellegrini, that nothing has been decided. History beckons, and an improbably triumphant, darkly ironic final season in English football is rich in possibilities for a man acknowledged by all as a model professional.

Lampard’s decisive goal, five minutes from the interval, was a tableau of familiar virtues. He drifted into space on the edge of the six-yard box as if he had borrowed Harry Potter’s Cloak of Invisibility. When the ball arrived, courtesy of Samir Nasri’s simple squared pass, it was duly despatched with a languid swing of his left leg.

He was breathing rarefied air, since it was his 175th Premier League goal, which brought him level on the all-time lists with Thierry Henry. “Lampard has built a career scoring goals from midfield,” said Leicester manager Nigel Pearson. “The timing of his movement is exemplary.”

Even City’s New York franchise, who have most to lose in the short term, spread the news: “That’s Frank Lampard’s 6th total goal for @MCFC” they tweeted, with a touching sense of loyalty to the stranger who was supposed to be a pillar of their MLS season. “He’s now the joint-4th top scorer in Premier League history.”

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TCity proved, belatedly, in midweek they could respond to the challenge of emotionally-charged evenings in the cathedrals of the European game. They were not required to reach such heights on a crisp, sunlit winter’s afternoon in an identikit stadium in the retail parklands of East Midlands

The King Power may be St Mary’s with a blue rinse, and it retains a pleasing sense of optimism, which will be stretched, probably to breaking point, before the spring. Leicester’s limitations are by no means overstated by their position at the bottom of the table.

They have gleaned only two points from 11 matches and though Pearson is right to stress “it is too easy to over-emphasise the negatives” the usual suspects will amplify the magnitude of his team’s plight, and his personal circumstances.

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City, by contrast, have won their last seven games. While it is too soon to revise assumptions that Chelsea are prohibitive favourites to mark Jose Mourinho’s second coming with a second title, they are acquiring ominous momentum.

Even billionaire ball clubs, with a global network of affiliated franchises, have their problems, however. Vincent Kompany and Edin Dzeko will be out until January with muscle injuries. The loss of Dzeko with a calf injury in the warm up means their only fit striker, Jose Angel Pozo, will have a sustained opportunity to underline the merits of an over-hyped, under-utilised development system. Someone once christened him the Mini Messi. He is small, quick but light years away from even hinting that such hyperbole is justified.

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It was unsurprising City were without a natural focal point to their attack; they also lacked width, since the instincts of David Silva, Nasri and Lampard to occupy the same space made the central area as crowded as a tube carriage during rush hour.

The sight of Kompany limping off, clutching his right leg 11 minutes from the end, was more portentous. The recurrence of his recent hamstring injury fits into a pattern of a player addressing cumulative damage as he approaches a critical phase of his career.

He will be missed. Jamie Vardy’s approach to perceived inferiority was simple, stark and revealingly successful; he merely ran directly at City’s defence, sprinting past Eliaquim Mangala with such alacrity it was like watching a race between a greyhound and a beach donkey.

His problem – and by extension Leicester’s fundamental weakness – was an absence of the composure required in such situations. Pearson sets an admirable example, in his even-tempered response to FA charges and suggestions he was approached by another protesting fan before kick-off yesterday, but he needs a win, sooner rather than later.

Line-ups:

Leicester City (4-1-4-1): Hamer; Konchesky, Morgan, Wasilewski, Simpson; Cambiasso; Mahrez, King, Drinkwater (Knockaert, 79), Schlupp (Ulloa, 64); Vardy (Powell, 73).

Manchester City (4-2-3-1): Hart; Sagna, Kompany (Demichelis, 77), Mangala, Clichy; Toure, Fernando; Silva, Lampard (Milner, 60), Nasri; Pozo (Navas, 74).

Referee: Jon Moss

Man of the match: Lampard (Manchester City)

Match rating: 6/10.