A Leicester City fan previews the Premier League match against Manchester United

Verdict: This is the one.

While they remain the only full-time club in the league, retain a strong financial backing and coin it in from guaranteed Champions League participation every season nothing is going to change.

Louis van Gaal fears “nasty” Jamie Vardy will come back to haunt Manchester United again as the Leicester striker seeks a record-breaking 11th straight Premier League goal. United are nothing to be frightened of. Serious doubts lingered about this club when they hired Claudio Ranieri in the summer, as the Italian’s reputation as a tactical tinker preceded him.

Van Gaal’s conservative approach has been a source of frustration for many United fans this season, but the former Barcelona boss is happy with how the team are performing and is confident goals will return to his side.

Manchester United’s Ashley Young.

“I don’t think anybody has expected that, even Leicester themselves”, he said. In the coming weeks, they will be fully tested.

They also failed to beat United, Chelsea or Leeds home and away during the campaign, beating Arsenal once in a December 13th match, the commentator bills as “title holders against would be champions”.

In my first six games for Newcastle I scored nine times, and at Coventry City it was 10, and on both those occasions I was on top of the world because my work life could not have been better.

Don’t be surprised if they are still in the mix at the top of the table when the dust settles on the frantic Christmas fixture schedule.

Third-place Man City looks to rebound from its 4-1 mauling by Liverpool in another home game, against Southampton. Down with the Villa. Manchester United, by contrast, holds possession and presses hard on turnovers to prevent counterattacking opportunities to their opponents.

Roberto Firminho and Romelu Lukaku form an impressive strike partnership. “But they are deserved at number one because points are the most important thing; goals are important, but winning points is more important”. Leonardo Ulloa will rarely have more time to head a ball into the net in his life.

The Dutchman was more forthcoming when asked about Leicester’s title chances, however.

“But we will go into the game believing we can win it, and our mentality is that we will always get at least a point”. They are scarcely suited to grinding out 1-0 wins, a staple diet for challengers. “We have to start turning these games into victories”. “We play to our strengths, try and not play to our weaknesses – it’s not rocket science”.

Agree? Disagree? Just want more analysis, spurious predictions and occasional nonsense? Up front you have talisman Harry Kane. But if that is the case, then Chelsea could round back into form at any time.

Verdict: West Ham were torn apart by Spurs last weekend and Slaven Bilic will be looking for an immediate response from his side. “Saturday is a great challenge for us to improve”. West Brom aren’t great either, but Tony Pulis should have enough about him to get something out of this, especially following their win against Arsenal last week.