Marcus Rashford fires Manchester United to win over Leicester and makes compelling case to keep Ole Gunnar Solskjaer

Manchester United hang on to repel a spirited Leicester fightback in the second half.  The home side manufactured enough chances and if this was a performance that lacked the gilding of some of them, it demonstrated the requisite steel. Leicester are a really good side who seem to be playing on the leash too long and are undone by the odd error. 

Leicester send the long cross in from the right and it dips at the far post, bouncing up for Maguire, who has been posted to the front line. It gets up too high so he has to improvise a roundhouse hip-high volley that screws the shot around the far post, a foot ahead of Iheanacho's lunge. 

Leicester enjoying a lot of possession and trying to pick the pass into the box. Twice they're inches away and Pogba has to take the initiative and dribble the ball out, his left foot controlling the ball like a mortal's hand, until he draws the foul.

Swift break upfield by Manchester United with Leicester over-committed in pursuit of the equaliser. Martial takes on the shot from 20 yards and stings the keeper's hands. 

United substitution: Jones for Lingard. Clinging on here. 

Up the other end Barnes and Chilwell combine to beat Young and play the cut back to the edge of the area for Vardy in the D but as the United defence parts he scuffs his daisy-cutter shot straight at De Gea. 

Mike Dean and his team, who have missed a lot today, fail to spot Matic catching in the goolies when he flailed his leg in a tackle. Chances at both ends - Lukaku tries to catch Schmeichel out with an early left-foot shot from the right, screwed to the near post. The keeper adjusts and dives low. 

Leicester sub: Iheanacho comes on with a note for Vardy and Mendy goes off. Vardy reads the message and instead of it self-destructing Mission Impossible style, he sticks it down his sock. 

Ghezzal whips it to the far post with his left foot, swinging it towards goal. It's the perfect set-up for a routine - Maguire nods it back across to the penalty spot where Evans has eluded his marker. All he has to do is connect with a left-foot volley but he swings and misses, kicking the air and, metaphorically, himself when United whack the ball clear. 

Luke Shaw, who must be the most mature-looking 23-year-old around with his facial scruff, is booked for a body check. Free kick for Leicester on their right. 

Young has been wasting time all half with his throw-ins and the home crowd is demanding Mike Dean takes action. But he is deaf to their imprecations. 

United substitution: Rashford goes off and is replaced by Romelu Lukaku. 

Shaw trips Ghezzal who was scurrying in horizontally from the right touchline. Leicester free-kick 25 yards out, 15 yards left of centre. Chilwell runs over it and Ghezzal whips in a shot, getting it over the wall and dipping towards the top right corner. De Gea dives up and across to tip it over the bar. 

Leicester substitution: Okazaki on for Gray. 

Martial shoots from 20 yards as Evans backed off, strikes the centre-half's foot and the ball spoons up and Schmeichel, backpedalling, gathers. 

Herrera passes out to the right for Lingard and hares into the box for the return. Mendy wraps his arms around his waist to prevent it and Herrera falls down. The chance began with his miscontrol and ended with Maguire ushering Lingard into touch but Mendy could well have been penalised for that rash tug. 

 Manchester United attack up the left, retreat and try a foray up the right but run out of road. 

Leicester continue to play well and Barnes is picked out on the left by Vardy's pass. He cuts in on to his right foot and tries to bend it in at the far post. It needed to be a banana curve but was more cucumber straight as it flashed past the far post. 

Man Utd substitution: Martial on for Sanchez who has worked hard but hasn't been particularly penetrative. United's travelling fans still 'all hate Leeds scum'. Fifteen years on. Bless. 

Chilwell wastes a good opportunity with players ahead of him breaking left and right to spread the defence. The left-back decides to take the cross on early, 40 yards from goal and stands up diagonal towards the 18-yard line that Lindelof nods comfortably back to De Gea. 

Leicester substitution: Maddison off for Ghezzal. The crowd is almost as hacked off by that decision as the thunder-struck Maddison who gives Puel a Medusa stare. 

Leicester free-kick 25 yards out by virtue of Matic's shove. Maddison takes it, catching the top of the wall, Pogba's shoulder, and the ball balloons towards goal. Vardy was standing behind the wall and tries a bicycle shot as it drops, panning it straight at De Gea but awkwardly so it bounces just in front. It squirms away from his first grasp but he gets it on the line before Barnes gobbles the chance up. 

Pogba ploughs through the middle, lays it off to Sanchez to his left and bombs into the box for the return. Mendy grabs his shirt to prevent him getting on the end of the one-two and he shouts for a penalty. Sanchez, seeing Pogba impeded, rolls it over to his left for Rashford who scuds a shot wide. Pogba engages the referee in a fruitless appeal. 

Mounds of timewasting by United over a throw-in allows Pogba time to stamp his foot to test if it is injured. 

Pogba seems to be moving OK now. United are passing it around the back four, trying to draw the sting of Leicester's pressing. 

Manchester United have flicked the switch and engaged their brains after that dozy start to the half. They hog the ball for a good minute or two, probing left and right before putting the ball out when Pogba is hurt in a fair but very forceful tackle by Evans. Has he twisted his ankle? He gets up limping and begins trying to run it off. 

From the Leicester corner, United break quickly with Rashford's pace and Sanchez's scampering persistence spooking Evans into slipping when hurrying a back pass to Schmeichel but he gets enough on it for the keeper to reach it when he sprints out. 

United caught Leicester napping at the start of the first half and the tables have been turned in this half. They're all over the place at the back. Barnes beats both Lingard and Young to get to the byline and stands up a left-foot cross towards the centre of goal. Neither Vardy nor Gray take the risk of making the run, anticipating the trajectory so Pogba has time to head behind for a corner. 

Two half chances for Leicester catch Manchester United cold - Barnes flashing a left-foot shot wide from the left side of the six-yard box after a cute pass from Vardy and half a minute later Maddison doing the same from the right after a weak throw from De Gea is compounded by Matic's poor touch. 

Leicester kick-off, telegraphing their intentions by overloading with five players on the left. Maguire chips the ball over to that side and they get a throw. Looks like Ashley Young is going to be the one targeted this half. 

Pereira ends the half with a volley he tees up for himself from about 22 yards that arcs into the arms of De Gea, who has stationed himself centrally. Off they go. United will fancy their chances of picking Leicester off a couple of times on the break in the next 45 as they eventually open up and go for a goal. Leicester need to be more clinical with their finishing and imaginative with their passing if they're going to pick the lock. 

From the free-kick United work it to the left, exploit a mis-step from Pereira and Rashford takes on the shot from 20 yards. Schemichel dives forward and to his right to scoop. 

Booking for Mendy who goes over the ball with a lunge on Herrera and snags him on the top of the foot and ankle. 

Matic yanks back by the shoulder when he can't live with him for pace. The free-kick, 40 yards out, five in from touch, hits the line of defenders arrayed across the 18-yard line and bounces attractively to Barnes who fizzes a right-foot shot a couple of feet wide of the right post as De Gea turns to watch it pass by. 

Young goes on a promising, thrusting run up the right then dinks his pass intended for Lingard to free him round the back of the defence straight into touch. 

Leicester, as they showed at Anfield and here against City, are far better counter-attacking than unpicking defences, superior at exploiting space than beating players. United so far have managed to close the door since they took the lead and funnel Leicester's attacks into the corners. 

Pair of Leicester corners when Young is forced to block Chilwell's crosses. The first is bent invitingly towards Maguire at the penalty spot and he wins the header but is penalised for a shove. A minute later Evans meets the left-wing inswinger about five yards to the right of the spot and the ball slides off his forehead wide of the right post. Bailly was tangling with him but he should have scored and would have at least bulleted it on target had he met it flush. 

Vardy makes  canny run between Bailly and Lindelof who manage at the last moment to come together like electric sliding doors to stop the pass to him from Maddison. A second's delay and he would have been through on goal with Young playing him onside. 

Lindelof, who would have been better letting Shaw's poor pass go out of play, takes it down to the left corner flag, turns and stabs it 20 yards upfield to Pereira. Would have been threatening but for Matic's nose for danger and well-timed tackle. 

Vardy comes in from the side and takes out Lindelof with reckless abandon, going for a 30-70 ball. A booking follows - Andy Hinchcliffe suggests it could have been red and poses the rhetorical question 'Will Jamie Vardy ever learn his lesson'? 

Rashford and Pogba have been the principal beneficiaries of Solskjaer's influence but Ander Herrera is also blossoming, playing with more drive and certainty, not as tethered as he used to be. 

Barnes, Maddison and Gray form a neat triangle on the left. Gray steps inside and upfield to make the angle for his right foot and crashes a thunderbolt towards goal. Bailly bends and puts his head in the way. Vital block but it knocks him bandy. Seeing stars at the moment. 

Maddison takes up a floating position behind Vardy and is exploiting the space well. Here he takes the ball in the inside-left channel and wallops a low shot straight down De Gea's throat. 

Heavy touches from Shaw as he tried to glide up the whitewash. He catches the first before it goes out but when boxed into the corner by Pereira he loses control and stabs it out for a corner. 

Lingard is booked for what looks like an accidental trip on Maddison as he chased him, catching his heel as the City midfielder changed direction. Lingard's movement, his ability to ghost into the centre-forward position, Rashford switching to the left and Snachez tacking right is causing all kinds of problems for Maguire and Evans. Ndidi and Mendy are having to work like Trojans to help them out.  

There's a short delay for treatment required by Maddison and Rashford. Both eventually get up but are limping - Rashford has a sore left knee, Maddison a twisted ankle. 

Leicester lead the Prem with points from losing positions this season, taking 13, so all is far from lost. Fantastic challenge from Luke Shaw sliding in as he covered the centre from the left. That took guts to block Maddison's shot from 12 yards after some pinball defending from Lindelof and Young. Shaw was on the cover from the left, Bailly on the right and both converged with genuine appetite to thwart Maddison. Corner - defended securely. 

It took Leicester an age to switch on at Molineux but it looks like the goal has given them the awakening they needed and they string some good, quick passes together to probe up the left. Herrera is dropping back to take Vardy when Leicester go wide. 

Daft mistake from Pereira who is shepherding the ball back to Schmeichel, turns and passes blind upfield, drilling it straight to Pogba who stuns it and chips a glorious right-foot diagonal pass 30 yards to the right of the D where Rashford traps it daintily with his toe and laces it past Schmeichel. Superb finish. 

Leicester 0-1 Man Utd (Rashford)

Manchester United whip in a low inswinger and all it needed was a defter touch on the six-yard line from Rashford. Rip van Leicester are fast asleep here. 

Maguire makes an unnecessarily clumsy foul on Rashford, trying to hook his leg between the forward's legs while he was shielding the ball. He shoves him over and United have a free-kick on the right that they send in to the box, bypassing the middle for Lindelof on the left. His attempt to centre is blocked out for a corner. 

'Sloppy' is the current go-to synonym for 'poor' and both defences have been guilty so far of poor positioning and heavy touches. Rashford misses a golden opportunity when Shaw ghosts down the inside-left channel and stands up a perfectly-flighted floaty diagonal to the far post. Maguire loses Rashford who has a free header and he steers it wide from the right side of the six-yard area. 

Venomously inswinging corner from the left, met by Gray who is well-challenged and heads it over. 

Flap from Matic who hooks a blind pass through the centre-circle, Vardy miskicks his attempt to free Barnes and Bailly, hoping to volley it 40 yards back to the keeper, shanks it behind for a corner. 

Manchester United back in the more traditional white shorts that don't go with their fade-to-black shirts. They move the ball back to Bailly and then over to Shaw who takes it up the left wing, plays in Sanchez and he is block-tackled by the 18-yard line to earn a throw-in. 

The players line up and slap each other's palms with 'bro' shakes. 

We have loads of games, we have picked the team today that we think is going to give Leicester the most difficult situation. We have just got to have quality in our own play, make sure we don’t give the ball away easily, keep pegging them back and if they peg us back then hit them on the counter-attack.”

Has just asked Alex Scott what is this 'low bloc' of which she is speaking. 

“We speak in my broken English or maybe in his broken English,” Solskjaer said. “Of course you try to sit him down and speak to him. He is a really hard-working, proud man. He is really determined to prove his worth and he has been fantastic since I came. His work-rate has been brilliant in training. Unfortunately he’s had the injuries but [the goal against Arsenal] is a big step forward for him.”

Can Sanchez cut it at United? “We hope so,” Solskjaer said, “but it comes with the territory. When it comes to Man Utd you have to be a big personality. You have to be able to handle setbacks and, of course, doing well. Sometimes handling success is more difficult than handling setbacks. All the players here they have that determination to prove their worth.”

Leicester City Schmeichel; Ricardo Pereira , Evans, Maguire, Chilwell; Ndidi, Mendy; Gray, Maddison, Barnes; Vardy. 
Substitutes Ward, Fuchs, Morgan, Choudhury, Ghezzal, Okazaki, Iheanacho.

Manchester United De Gea; Young, Lindelof, Bailly, Shaw; Matic, Herrera; Lingard, Pogba, Sanchez;  Rashford. 
Substitutes Romero, Dalot, Jones, Fred, Mata, Martial, Lukaku.

Referee Mike Dean (Heswall)

And welcome to live coverage of Leicester City vs Manchester United from the King Power Stadium, a meeting of the teams in 11th and sixth. The visitors have lost only once against Leicester since 1998, and that was the extraordinary 5-3 victory under Nigel Pearson in 2014 that emphasised how far from coherence Louis van Gaal's United side were a month into his two-year management spell. 

Since then it's been two draws and a win for Manchester United but Claude Puel's side, one of those frustrating teams that raises their game arbitrarily but often against the most gifted teams with a kind of admirable mulish defiance born from the folk memory that they were champions of England only three years ago. 

United, eight wins and a draw under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, are also a team galvanised by a folk memory of their true identity and are making a plausible attempt to show the world their better selves. He has already done enough to suggest that he has  purged the gloom of relentless castigation and deflection of the previous manager and that this is a more significant twitch on the thread. They have had bigger tests under him but against a side as capable as Leicester on their own ground, it's another opportunity to see which of the two is closer to convincing us that they can be what they want to be.