‘Think clearly’: Smith seeks final-day survival hat-trick with Leicester

B y a quirk of fate Dean Smith is in familiar territory. Three years ago, at an empty London Stadium because of the pandemic, he preserved Aston Villa’s Premier League status on the final day of the season courtesy of a draw against David Moyes’s West Ham. Moyes and West Ham again stand in the way of Smith securing safety and, eerily, Everton also host Bournemouth, as they did at the climax of that strange season.

This time, however, the scenario is much simpler – and there will be supporters to provide mood music. “Can you create scoreboard pressure on other teams? I don’t know,” the interim Leicester manager says. “We just have to concentrate on trying to win the game.”

Supporters will doubtless have spent the past couple of days studying the permutations, but for Leicester the scores at Goodison Park or Elland Road are in effect meaningless if they do not do their bit. Leicester must beat West Ham and hope Everton do not beat Bournemouth to survive. Leeds will avoid relegation if they beat Tottenham and Leicester and Everton both lose.

The frustrating thing for Smith is in recent weeks Leicester have squandered chances to alleviate the pressure. But now it all boils down to Sunday and even victory may prove insufficient.

Smith took charge of Leicester with seven weeks and eight games of the season to run. He has since won one match, at home to Wolves, taking six points from a possible 21. Until Monday’s stalemate at Newcastle, Leicester had not kept a clean sheet in 22 matches.

“When you first come in you look at games and I looked at Manchester City, Liverpool and Newcastle and knew they were going to be tough to get points out of,” he says. “I expected us probably to win our home games and nick points away from