Man Utd triumph over Leicester City: A journey through hope, heartbreak, and Bruno Fernandes’ right foot

Robert Bore takes us on an emotional rollercoaster, filled with dodgy bets, misplaced optimism, and the undeniable power of Bruno Fernandes.

What is now obvious to me is it is hard to get yourself up for a 7pm Sunday game after Liverpool has just been done in the Carabao Cup final and all your team's eggs are laid in a Thursday night Europa League basket.

So where to begin and how to entertain?

Well, here at Sports News Blitz like a good punt, so I decided to walk you through the, at the time of writing, likely failure of my nine-leg, £4 BetBuilder.

Yes, nine legs, like three Isle of Man logos or three milkmaid stools. Perhaps three well-endowed p*rnstars.

Take your pick, like the skin flick guys, I'm not fussy.

So here we have it.

The logic (or lack thereof) behind the madness

Sucked in by last Thursday's attacking performance against Spanish strugglers Real Sociedad, who played for a decent chunk with 10 men, I fancied the Reds to have some shots against the hapless Foxes, which translated into this:

1. Bruno Fernandes 2+ Shots

2. Bruno Fernandes 1+ shots on target

3. Alejandro Garnacho 3+ shots

4. Alejandro Garnacho 1+ shots on target

5. Rasmus Hojlund 1+ shots on target

6. Matthijs de Ligt 1+ shot

7. Bruno Fernandes to commit 1+ fouls

8. Both teams to receive a yellow card

9. Andre Onana 1+ saves

20-1 all in, man and boy. Show me the money.

A slow start (for the bet, not the match)

By the time I caught up to where I am now, there were 15 minutes of the game gone. It hadn't started very well.

Only the surest of the lot was ticked green, Onana saving well from the irrepressible Jamie Vardy while at the other end, Hojlund had failed to hit the target with an early effort.

So, as you may be thinking, what the hell was I thinking?

Well, Fernandes speaks for himself, the form he has been in.

There were rumours of a United fan who backed the skipper for a hat-trick in midweek and took home £8k for his troubles although when that third penalty was revoked he almost gave birth to a kitten.

Garnacho, while noticeably less trigger-happy in midweek, usually lets fly at will.

De Ligt will be up for a corner at some stage and has a considerably wide head. In the absence of Harry Maguire, that seems logical.

A Fernandes foul is standard and was a toss-up between that or three plus Manuel Ugarte tackles - but in his last game, he was off the pace and didn't look fit.

The rest of the selections are pretty self-explanatory.

Green ticks, missed kicks, and Fernandes doing Fernandes things

Garnacho turned green with a strike straight down Mads Hermansen's throat.

However, it was Christian Eriksen who almost broke the deadlock when his quick one-two with Fernandes from a corner curled beautifully goalwards but came back off the crossbar.

It would have been the Dane's first league goal of the campaign and it would have been majestic.

Leicester weren't really troubling. However, Patson Daka almost got in behind the United defence but a wonderfully time lunge by young Ayden Heaven saw to the danger.

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Hojlund ends a drought, my bet gains some life

But United did edge ahead and it wasn't undeserved.

Thankfully for him, it was Hojlund, breaking his 21-game drought in clinical fashion.

The architect was, as usual, Fernandes but the young Dane did very well, taking the ball into his stride, controlling it in his path then out-pacing his marker before slamming the ball across goalkeeper Mads Hermansen and into the far corner.

More importantly, it was a third selection ticked off.

Bilal El Khannouss edged us along further with a late one on Noussair Mazraoui that earned him the yellow card we needed for the Foxes and we were starting to motor along nicely.

Fernandes’ 2+ shots came in after a wild swing from a part-cleared corner.

Meanwhile, Heaven blocked well from Patson Daka and was having an accomplished half, which ended with United ahead and looking scarily comfortable.

Injury, substitutions, and mounting anxiety

My biggest concern on the nine-leg front was De Ligt but United were ahead at the break for the second game running, the first time that had happened all season.

If the first half ended well, the second started dreadfully as Heaven went down after seeing Daka away from danger at the far post and it looked bad.

With a stretcher immediately called and the kid staying down, Toby Collyer was summoned to drop in at wing back with Mazraoui occupying one of the central three berths.

What a huge blow for the 18-year-old who had looked superb to that point and a steal at a reported £1.5million from Arsenal - United's centre-back jinx hitting again with so many defenders out already.

VAR: The natural enemy of a good bet

They thought it was 2-0 after Garnacho strayed a fraction offside before firing past the keeper, VAR upholding the assistant's (extremely late) decision and also, frustratingly, keeping him on one shot for the game when we needed another two.

Eriksen saw another shot blocked for a corner and up came De Ligt.

Pump it into the box Christian please - he did - but the big Dutchman seemed to duck under it while Garnacho fired the loose ball at the Leicester keeper. Still, that was another shot ticked off.

Fernandes had a shot blocked as United readied three subs but before Ruben Amorim could ring the changes, Garnacho got his goal.

The United captain needed two stabs to get the ball into the Argentinean and he shot early, beating the keeper at his near post before being hoiked off - the 1000th goal Leicester had conceded in the Premier League in their 679th match.

Joshua Zirkzee, Casemiro and Harry Amass - on his 18th birthday - were brought into the fray as Ugarte and Eriksen made way for the final 25 minutes or so.

But how was the bet doing?

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Tick, tick, ticking away...

Garnacho's goal saw his line turn green with five of the nine now in the bag.

De Ligt, Fernandes hitting the target at least, a United yellow - well, Casemiro was now on the pitch - and a Fernandes foul were left and there was still time.

Leicester should have scored when Vardy was flying towards goal from the left flank after Victor Lindelöf slipped.

And while his square ball to Facundo Buonanotte was good, De Ligt's diving block was better.

The hosts, edging perilously close to the ignominy of becoming the first top-flight side in history to go seven home games without a goal.

Wilfred Ndidi was booked for leaving too much on De Ligt but it was a red shirt we needed to be naughty, preferably a Fernandes yellow through a foul to kill two birds with one stone.

But time was starting to race and De Ligt didn't look too keen on bombing forward. Even Fernandes looked happy, his 50th assist for United in the league already secured.

Zirkzee and Wout Faes got into some shaggy-haired handbags after the Belgian dragged him back after some good skill down the left by his Dutch rival before Hojlund, maybe the most relieved man in the stadium, was replaced by Chido Obi.

But United seemed happy with what they had, which was no good for my punt but wait a minute.

We had another green tick when Dalot was found by Casemiro's cross-field ball.

The Portuguese wing-back did a Ronaldo stepover to sit his defender on his behind before cutting back for Fernandes to finish with aplomb.

Small wins, big lessons, and Leicester’s impending doom

We entered eight minutes of added time with added hope but as I took stock of my poor punting record, it was worth remembering that Leicester are pants.

So while United show green shoots of recovery, there's a long, long way to go before we get the bunting out.

Harry Winks' long-range effort was saved easily and Vardy saw Onana's shoulder deny him the goal that would avoid the unwanted history.

In truth, if the legend that is Ruud van Nistelrooy sees the weekend out before you have read this piece then he's done well. The Foxes are doomed to the drop.

But at least there’s some momentum for Amorim's men as we go into the international break.

Am I feeling a little bit happier since that FA Cup demise to Fulham a fortnight ago?

You bet!

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