Arsenal legend makes worrying Erling Haaland claim after Man City win over Leicester

Arsenal legend Ian Wright believes Leicester have given other Premier League sides the blueprint to beat Manchester City without star striker Erling Haaland.

Haaland sat out this weekend’s trip to Leicester City with a foot injury he picked up in the draw with former club Borussia Dortmund on Tuesday, with Kevin De Bruyne’s superb free-kick proving enough to beat the Foxes 1-0 and take the champions to the top of the Premier League table.

Any team in the world would miss Erling Haaland, who has a staggering 22 goals in all competition, but it certainly helps when you’ve still got Kevin De Bruyne to call upon.

Guardiola’s side dominated the first half in terms of possession, but with no Erling Haaland in the squad they found it difficult to find ways through an organised Leicester defence.

Speaking on Match of the Day, the 58-year-old praised Leicester’s ability to stay compact and keep City out wide. The Foxes limited Pep Guardiola’s side to just five shots on target but were ultimately undone by a genius set-piece.

“We know how great Man City are, how well they keep the ball, but Leicester defensively today were brilliant,” Wright said.

“When you’re talking about a team that has conceded 22 goals in the first seven games, three in the last six games, they’ve really done a lot of work defensively and I think it showed today. I think we saw what it took to beat them.

“You could see how compact (Leicester) are. They were giving (Man City) the width, letting them go out wide. (João) Cancelo and Bernardo Silva up there, because they know Erling Haaland wasn’t playing and, like Brendan Rodgers said, he was doing cartwheels when he found that out.

“They defended very well. You could see what (Man City) were trying to do, they were trying to open them up, but they stayed compact. You could see the five-at-the-back, once the ball went in, they were able to deal with it and there was no way through, very very organised.”

Manchester City have proved many times they can win without a classic centre forward and even if Erling Haaland were to miss the rest of this season, they would probably still take the title.