Before Leicester City won the Premier League title in 2016, they pulled off one of the greatest of great escapes to avoid relegation to the Championship.

A repeat of that looks very unlikely this time – even though their current situation is not as precarious.

Back in 2014-15 they were rooted to the foot of the table for much of the season, only climbing off it in April as a run of seven wins from their final nine games took them to unexpected safety.

But this Leicester team look barely capable of winning one game, let alone going on a run of victories.

“We are going to get up again,” vowed boss Ruud van Nistelrooy after the game. “We are still in this fight, mathematically we are there and we keep fighting as long as we can.

“It must be clear that the fight was only one half today and that is not enough.”