Manchester City were crowned Premier League champions for the third time in four seasons as Leicester City secured their first Old Trafford victory over Manchester United since 1998 to take a major step towards a place in next season’s Champions League.

Defeat for United means they are 10 points behind City with only three games remaining.

Caglar Soyuncu’s far-post header was enough to bring a smile to Brendan Rodgers’ face and that of Pep Guardiola, whose dominance of the English game is increasing.

A United side showing 10 changes to the team that won at Aston Villa two days previously battled hard, with Mason Greenwood levelling after fellow 19-year-old Luke Thomas had put the visitors in front with a fantastic far-post volley into the top corner.

Ironically, Leicester’s winner came from a corner that was delayed by the introduction of two United substitutes by manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

One of them, Marcus Rashford, was initially marking Soyuncu at the corner but lost the Turkey international in the build-up and Nemanja Matic was unable to repel the goal threat.

The result brought to an end United’s 14-match unbeaten run in the league, since the home defeat by Sheffield United on 27 January.

Rodgers’ side now only require four points from their final two games to secure a top-four finish, although before that quest resumes, they will attempt to win the FA Cup for the first time in the club’s history against Chelsea at Wembley on Saturday.

Leicester celebrate rare Old Trafford success

Solskjaer had already said he would have no option other than to make mass changes given a fixture list that consigned his team to play three times in five days.

This central fixture was always likely to be the one in which United started with the fewest regular members of their first-choice line-up.

Yet Leicester had reason to be cautious about their good fortune.

Their record against United is awful, with just two wins in 29 previous Premier League meetings and only one success in their last 22 top-flight visits to Old Trafford.

In addition, a run of two wins in six league games brought worrying parallels of the post-lockdown run of two wins from nine matches that saw them miss out on qualification for this season’s Champions League thanks to the only two weeks they have spent outside the top four since September 2019.

Thomas’ opener was only the third time Leicester had taken the lead in a Premier League game at Old Trafford but the local-born Leicester fan produced a memorable finish to mark it.

The teenager had the maturity to wait for Youri Tielemans’ cross to drop before applying the devastating end product, effectively passing the ball over David de Gea and into the far corner of the net with a brilliant side-footed volley.

Greenwood responded with an excellent goal of his own as he collected Amad’s pass before driving into the box and beating Kasper Schmeichel with a finish that showed why many now think he should be in Gareth Southgate’s squad for Euro 2020.

Southgate will be relieved United skipper Harry Maguire only sustained ankle ligament damage at Villa. But the centre-half was sat in the stand with a protective boot on, so his presence was missed at the corner that proved decisive, both for Leicester and Manchester City.